FSO NEWS: What Is Solana? Proof of History, Outages and the Alpenglow Upgrade

What Is Solana? SOL, Proof of History and the Alpenglow upgrade

Key takeaways

Solana is a high-speed proof-of-stake blockchain founded by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal. Its first block was produced in March 2020.
It is known for low fees and fast transactions, which made it a hub for trading, memecoins, NFTs and stablecoin payments.
Its history includes several full network outages between 2021 and 2024 and a deep crash after FTX collapsed in 2022.
On October 21, 2026, the Alpenglow upgrade replaced Solana's consensus system and cut finality from about 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds, according to developer Anza.
U.S. spot Solana ETFs with staking have traded since October 2025.

Bitcoin was designed to be a secure, slow-moving digital money. Solana took the opposite approach. It was built to be as fast as possible, handling thousands of transactions per second for fractions of a cent so apps could run on-chain much as they run on the regular internet.

That bet has paid off in usage, but it has come with growing pains. Here is where Solana came from, how it works, what it is used for, the big 2026 upgrade and the risks investors should weigh. For the roots of the whole industry, see our article on the origins of bitcoin.

Origins: a clock for the blockchain

Anatoly Yakovenko, a former engineer at chipmaker Qualcomm, wrote a white paper in late 2017 describing an idea he called Proof of History. In 2018, he and Raj Gokal founded Solana Labs in San Francisco to build it. The network was named after Solana Beach, the California town where Yakovenko had lived and surfed.

Solana's "mainnet beta" produced its first block on March 16, 2020. The network has kept the "beta" label for years as engineers worked on reliability.

Solana became one of the biggest winners of the 2021 crypto boom, as NFT collections and trading apps moved there to escape high fees on Ethereum.

How Solana works

Proof of stake plus Proof of History

Solana is a proof-of-stake network. Validators lock up SOL to take part, and holders can delegate SOL to them to earn a share of the rewards. Proof of History adds a kind of cryptographic clock, a running sequence of hashes that proves time has passed between events. It lets validators agree on the order of transactions without constantly messaging each other, which helps make the network fast.

From TowerBFT to Alpenglow

Until October 2026, validators voted on blocks using a system called TowerBFT. It worked, but it took about 12.8 seconds for a block to become final, meaning it could not be reversed. The new Alpenglow protocol, designed by Roger Wattenhofer, Quentin Kniep and Kobi Sliwinski and published by Anza in May 2025, replaces that system. Anza says it brings finality down to about 150 milliseconds.

Multiple validator clients

Early on, nearly every Solana validator ran the same software, so one bug could stop the whole network. That changed with Firedancer, a separate validator client built by trading firm Jump Crypto. It went live in full on mainnet in December 2025. More independent software makes a single bug less likely to take everything down.

What Solana is used for

Trading. Decentralized exchanges on Solana handle large volumes because trades cost very little and settle quickly.
Memecoins. Solana became the main home for memecoin launches, including the TRUMP token in January 2025. This drives activity, but much of it is highly speculative.
Stablecoins and payments. Dollar stablecoins such as USDC move on Solana, and payment companies use it for fast settlement.
Staking. SOL holders can stake to help secure the network and earn rewards.
NFTs and consumer apps. Low fees make Solana practical for games, collectibles and apps with many small transactions.

Key milestones and setbacks

March 16, 2020: Mainnet beta produces its first block.
September 14, 2021: A flood of bot transactions during a token sale knocks the network offline for about 17 hours.
2022: Three more major outages, starting April 30, June 1 and September 30, lasting between about 4.5 and 7 hours. In August, thousands of wallets were drained in a hack tied to the Slope wallet app.
November 2022: FTX, one of Solana's best-known backers, collapses. SOL plunges as investors fear FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research will have to dump their holdings.
June 2023: The SEC names SOL as a security in its lawsuits against crypto exchanges, a claim that fell away when the SEC dropped those cases in 2025.
February 6, 2024: The last major outage, lasting about 4 hours and 46 minutes.
October 28, 2025: The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) begins trading, the first U.S. spot Solana product to pass staking rewards to shareholders.
December 2025: Firedancer goes fully live on mainnet.

Solana's story is a trade-off: speed and low cost won it users, while outages and its ties to FTX showed the risks of moving fast.

Recent developments in 2026

Commodity status. In March 2026, the SEC, joined by the CFTC, listed SOL among its examples of "digital commodities," ending years of uncertainty over whether U.S. regulators considered it a security.
Alpenglow goes live. On October 21, 2026, Alpenglow switched on at slot 459,653,000, around 10 a.m. Eastern time, and retired TowerBFT. It is the biggest change to Solana's core design since launch. Anza has described further upgrades, but has not given dates for them.
Uptime. Solana's own outage reports list no full network halt since February 2024.

Risks to consider

Reliability. Solana has gone more than two and a half years without a full outage, but its track record before that was poor. Alpenglow is brand-new, and new consensus code can have unexpected bugs.
Hardware and centralization. Running a Solana validator requires powerful, costly hardware, which critics say limits who can take part.
Speculative activity. A lot of Solana's traffic comes from memecoins and short-term trading, which can disappear quickly when markets cool.
Price swings. SOL has fallen more than half in past downturns. Read our guide to understanding volatility.
Scams and hacks. Fast, cheap tokens are easy to create, and many are scams. Exchanges are targets too: Chainalysis estimated about $6.4 billion was stolen from Binance in October 2026, the largest crypto theft on record.

The bottom line

Solana has become one of the most-used blockchains by delivering the speed and low fees it promised. With a second validator client, regulatory clarity, ETFs and Alpenglow's near-instant finality, it is on stronger footing than it was during the outages of 2021 and 2022. But it is still a young, fast-changing network, and its token is volatile. If you own SOL, size it as a high-risk part of your portfolio.

FAQ

Who founded Solana?

Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal founded Solana Labs in 2018.

What is Proof of History?

A cryptographic clock that timestamps events in order, so validators can agree on the sequence of transactions faster.

What did Alpenglow change?

It replaced Solana's TowerBFT voting system on October 21, 2026, cutting the time to finality from about 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds, according to Anza.

Can you stake SOL?

Yes, directly through a wallet, through some exchanges, or through U.S. ETFs that stake on shareholders' behalf. Rewards vary and are not guaranteed.

Sources

This article is for information and education only and is not investment advice.

This article is for general information only and is not financial, tax, legal or insurance advice. Check the official sources linked in the article and speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.