Solana Dials Down Slot Time to 350ms in Bid for Faster Throughput

Solana's mainnet slot time has been reduced to 350 milliseconds, marking the first such decrease since the network's launch. This change took effect at epoch 1020 and is part of a four-stage plan to reach a target of 200 milliseconds. According to Solana Foundation Vice President Jacob Creech, 'We're in a new era of 350ms.' The next step will be to reduce slot time to 300 milliseconds.

The reduction was made possible by the Agave validator client's update, which carried several protocol changes. Anza and Helius executives have weighed in on the benefits of this change, with Anza CEO Brennan Watt stating that testnet slot times had already reached 182 milliseconds. This is expected to quadruple network throughput in the near term.

However, validators will face tighter timing margins as a result of this change. Their window for holding four consecutive slots has narrowed from 1.6 seconds to 1.4 seconds. Additionally, off-chain software may pose a hurdle due to its reliance on the 400-millisecond slot time.