Solana Slashes Slot Time to 350 Milliseconds

Solana's mainnet slot time has been reduced to 350 milliseconds, marking the first such reduction since its launch. This change took effect at epoch 1020 and is part of a four-step plan to reach a target of 200 milliseconds.

The per-slot compute limits have shrunk in proportion, keeping the theoretical ceiling near 250 million units per second. Jacob Creech, vice president of technology at the Solana Foundation, announced the change on X, stating 'We're in a new era of 350ms,' with 300 milliseconds as the next target.

The reduction is part of a plan to increase network throughput. Brennan Watt, chief executive of Anza, confirmed that testnet slot times had already reached 182 milliseconds, while explorer data showed an average of 193 milliseconds over the preceding hour.

Mert Mumtaz, chief executive of Helius, predicted that shorter slots paired with a higher block limit would quadruple network throughput in the near term. However, validators now face tighter timing margins due to the reduced slot time and increased block production.