PANews reported on October 26 that according to CoinDesk, Solana is about to launch the Alpenglow upgrade at the end of this year or early 2026. This upgrade will significantly reduce the operating costs and entry barriers for validators.
According to Michael Repetny, CEO of Marinade Labs, it currently costs approximately $5,000 per month to run a Solana validator, of which $4,000 (80%) goes towards voting fees. The Alpenglow upgrade will significantly reduce these voting fees, making validator node operation affordable for more participants.
In addition to reducing costs, Alpenglow will also increase network bandwidth and reduce latency, improving validator economics through better block aggregation while also reducing malicious MEV (maximum extractable value) activity. However, the upgrade may place higher demands on validator hardware.
