Solana Slots Are Going to 200 ms: What Halves, What Shrinks
Originally published on xroot.dev . Solana's slot has been 400 milliseconds since genesis. The plan to halve it — SIMD-0525 — is usually explained as "blocks get faster", which is the least interesting thing it does. The interesting part is everything that was quietly denominated in slots because slots were a fixed unit of time, and now is not. Your blockhash expires in 150 slots. An epoch is…
Solana's slot time has reduced from 400 milliseconds to 200 milliseconds, affecting various aspects of the network. This change, known as SIMD-0525, brings about several alterations that were previously denominated by slots. Block rewards, blockhash expiration, and block sizes have all been impacted, with block rewards halving and block sizes shrinking.
Additionally, the expiration time for blockhashes reduces from 30 seconds to 15 seconds, which could lead to issues for users who rely on the longer window for transactions. Validation of transactions also becomes faster, with the validator carrying a full parameter set for each regime. As a result, software that relies on longer slot times may need to be updated or adjusted to account for the new 200 ms block time.
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