Solana nears upgrade to cut block times by 20%

Solana is expected to apply an upgrade at mainnet epoch 1,053 that will reduce block production time to 200 milliseconds from 250 milliseconds, CoinDesk reported. After the change, the Solana network will offer five block production opportunities per second. CoinDesk said the move marks the final stage of a phased reduction in block times that began at 400 milliseconds in August. The outlet explained that faster block production can reduce transaction delays and opportunities for attacks that exploit them, while also increasing validators’ voting burden and network load, which shortens transaction validity periods. Solana mainnet is currently at epoch 1,052, with about nine hours and 38 minutes remaining until the next epoch.