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Solana sets final 200ms slot-time cut for next epoch

Solana plans to cut target slot times to 200 milliseconds at its next mainnet epoch, doubling block opportunities while leaving capacity near current levels.

By Web3 Hub Newsroom2 min read

Solana sets final 200ms slot-time cut for next epoch

Solana is preparing to cut its target slot time from 250 to 200 milliseconds at the next mainnet epoch, completing a staged rollout that will double block-production opportunities from the original pace. The CoinDesk report says the change is expected around 15:00 UTC Friday; the Solana Foundation lists the final feature gate for epoch 1052, with the shorter slot time taking effect at the following epoch boundary.

How much faster will Solana’s blocks arrive?

At 200 milliseconds, Solana will target five slots per second, up from 2.5 under its original 400-millisecond setting. The Solana Foundation’s upgrade schedule says the 350ms, 300ms and 250ms stages are already active on mainnet, while the final step is live on devnet and testnet.

Each slot is a window in which a designated validator can add a block. The reduction follows the SIMD-0525 proposal and shortens the period applications wait between block-production opportunities.

Will the change increase transaction capacity?

Not substantially, according to CoinDesk’s account of SIMD-0525. At 200 milliseconds, each block’s compute limit is set to fall to 30 million units from 37.5 million at 250 milliseconds, offsetting the more frequent blocks and keeping theoretical processing capacity roughly unchanged.

Solana’s upgrade page says blockhashes will still expire after 150 blocks, but that window will shrink to about 30 seconds at the new slot time, compared with about 38 seconds at 250 milliseconds. That leaves less time for transactions that depend on manual approval or offline signing.

What happens before the cut takes effect?

The Foundation says each 50ms reduction has a separate feature gate, with block-skip rates used to decide whether the network can proceed. CoinDesk reports that the final setting is scheduled for epoch 1053, expected around 15:00 UTC Friday; the new slot duration takes effect at the following epoch boundary.

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