Solana Labs subsidiary Anza proposed the "biggest transformation" of network Consensus.

Source: Cointelegraph Original text: "Anza, a branch of Solana Labs, proposes the 'greatest transformation' of network consensus"

Anza, a Solana blockchain infrastructure company that has spun off from Solana Labs, has proposed a new proof-of-stake consensus protocol called Alpenglow. It is said to be "the biggest change in the Solana core protocol's history" and will compete with current internet infrastructure.

Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski, and Roger Wattenhofer from Anza stated on May 19, 2025: "We believe that the launch of Alpenglow will be a turning point for Solana. Alpenglow is not only a new consensus protocol but also the biggest change to the Solana core protocol since its inception."

Alpenglow consists of two parts: Votor, responsible for handling voting transactions and block finalization logic; and Rotor, a data distribution protocol that will replace Solana's historical proof timestamp system, aimed at reducing the time required for all nodes to reach consensus on the network state.

Anza's researchers claim, "Alpenglow will break the existing latency limits." The project expects Alpenglow's actual finalization time to reach around 150 milliseconds, comparable to internet infrastructure. They further explain:

"A median latency of 150 milliseconds not only means that Solana is fast—it means that Solana can compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness, potentially making blockchain technology suitable for entirely new categories of applications that require real-time performance."

Votor will replace TowerBFT, aiming to complete block finalization in one round with 80% stake participation, while requiring two rounds when only 60% of the stake responds.

These two voting modes are integrated and run simultaneously, with the finalization occurring immediately after the faster of the two paths concludes.

Researchers at Anza have stated that this model will bring "unprecedented finalization delays," while allowing it to operate more efficiently under "adverse network conditions."

The project's white paper states that switching to Alpenglow does not completely shield Solana from the network interruption issues it has faced in the past.

Currently, Solana has only one production-ready client, Agave, which means that any security vulnerabilities in Agave could disrupt the entire Solana network.

However, a new independent validator client called Firedancer is expected to launch on the Solana mainnet sometime this year, which will provide client diversification for the network.

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