Alpenglow is active on mainnet-beta

Alpenglow is active on Solana mainnet-beta as of 21 October 2026. A query of the public mainnet RPC the same day returned a certificate from getAgGenesisCert.

Epoch 1064 started at 3:36:05 p.m. Berlin time, 15:36:05 CEST. That is the block time of slot 459,648,000.

The certificate covers slot 459,652,999. The block time of that slot is 3:54:00 p.m. Berlin, 15:54:00 CEST.

The Solana Foundation upgrade page names slot 459,653,000 as the handoff slot. The certificate sits one slot earlier.

The RPC returned no block time for slots 459,653,000 through 459,653,004. The error says the slot was skipped, or is missing from long-term storage. Slot 459,653,010 had a block time again, at 3:54:03 p.m. Berlin, 15:54:03 CEST.

On X, Anza writes that finality fell from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds. Solana’s post puts the figure at about 150 milliseconds.

The same day, the validator StakeCraft wrote on X of a latest reading of 394 milliseconds and a median of 414 milliseconds.

The upgrade page says nothing changes for signing. After the switch, confirmed and finalized mean the same state. Vote transactions leave the blocks.

The page sets the VAT at 0.8 SOL per epoch, paid from the vote account. Rotor is planned for a later release and is meant to replace Turbine.

On the evening of 21 October the page still showed about 13:20 UTC as the estimate for the epoch start. The start was 13:36:05 UTC. The page still says Firedancer and Frankendancer are not supported during the migration.

The rest of the switch is in the epoch 1064 report.

Update (22 October 2026)

On 22 October the upgrade page says the genesis certificate for slot 459,652,999 carries votes from 446 of 654 validators. The page says the line “446 validators participated” counts the votes in that certificate.

The handoff from TowerBFT to Alpenglow took about 900 milliseconds, according to the page. Firedancer and Frankendancer were not supported for the migration.

On 22 October the page puts the epoch start at about 13:36 UTC. On the evening of 21 October it still showed about 13:20 UTC.

What to watch

• Whether later readings land nearer Anza’s 150 milliseconds or StakeCraft’s figures
• Whether slots 459,653,000 through 459,653,004 were skipped or are only missing from the public RPC
• Whether the Foundation clears Firedancer and Frankendancer after the migration
• Whether Rotor gets a date

How the query was run. At 8:46 p.m. Berlin on 21 October 2026 the call went to api.mainnet-beta.solana.com.

The getEpochInfo call showed epoch 1064. The getVersion call reported solana-core 4.3.2.

The getBlockTime call for slot 459,648,000 returned 1792589765, which is 15:36:05 CEST. The same call for slot 459,652,999 returned 1792590840, which is 15:54:00 CEST. The getAgGenesisCert call named that slot.

Sources

• Mainnet RPC — api.mainnet-beta.solana.com, 21 October 2026, 8:46 p.m. Berlin: getEpochInfo epoch 1064, getAgGenesisCert slot 459,652,999, getBlockTime 459,648,000 = 15:36:05 CEST, getBlockTime 459,652,999 = 15:54:00 CEST, getBlockTime 459,653,010 = 15:54:03 CEST, no block time for slots 459,653,000 through 459,653,004, getVersion solana-core 4.3.2
• Anza — Post, 21 October 2026, 3:54 p.m. Berlin: finality from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds
• Solana — Post, 21 October 2026, 3:59 p.m. Berlin: about 150 milliseconds
• StakeCraft — Post, 21 October 2026, 5:32 p.m. Berlin: latest 394 milliseconds, median 414 milliseconds
• Solana Foundation — Alpenglow upgrade page, read 21 October 2026, 8:46 p.m. Berlin: handoff slot 459,653,000, estimate about 13:20 UTC, VAT 0.8 SOL, Rotor with no date, Firedancer and Frankendancer not supported during the migration
• Solana Foundation — Alpenglow upgrade page, read 22 October 2026: votes from 446 of 654 validators on the genesis certificate for slot 459,652,999, handoff about 900 milliseconds, Firedancer and Frankendancer not supported for the migration, epoch start about 13:36 UTC
• SOLANA·HUB — Alpenglow, epoch 1064