Solana (SOL) will launch a new transaction format called TransactionV1 on Sept. 9 that expands per-transaction processing capacity more than threefold to 4,096 bytes from 1,232 bytes. The exact implementation date has not yet been confirmed, Japanese cryptocurrency media outlet CoinPost reported on Monday.

Once TransactionV1 is activated, transfers accompanied by large cryptographic proofs or multiple signatures can be handled in a single transaction. The existing legacy format and the v0 format will continue to work, so there is no need to rush wallet updates. Software that reads blocks and transactions must support the TransactionV1 format, and a delayed response could cause a paid priority fee to be displayed as zero.

The existing 1,232-byte cap stems from old network designs that fit communications data into fixed-size packets. Solana lowered the need for the constraint by changing its communications method in 2022. The new cap was set at 4,096 bytes to match the standard memory page size of validator node equipment, in what is seen as an effort to curb processing costs while narrowing the gap with Ethereum, a rival without size limits.

The next major upgrade, AlpenGlow, aims to replace its consensus mechanism from TowerBFT to Voter and move vote processing off-chain, cutting finality to about 150 milliseconds from around 12.8 seconds now. Anza, the developer, has asked for 10 percent of total stake to be allocated to v4.3 as of Monday, and will proceed in stages of 25 percent on Sept. 14, a full recommendation on Sept. 21, and the start of mainnet feature activation on Sept. 28. The actual effects are expected to appear from October.

BLS public key registration, a prerequisite for AlpenGlow, began on July 8, and the VAT system, which manages eligibility to participate as a validator node, began on July 22. VAT currently limits the number of accepted nodes to 2,000, and validator nodes that did not register BLS public keys have already been excluded from consensus. Earlier, Solana passed by a narrow margin a proposal to double the disinflation rate in its first on-chain governance vote, bringing forward the timing for curbing token issuance.

Solana completed deployment of the previous version, Agave 4.2, in August, but the transaction capacity expansion and slot-time reduction features are still awaiting activation, with only a rent reduction partly applied. It plans to cut rent fees by 90 percent in the final stage, and is also pushing to shorten slot time to 200 milliseconds from 400 milliseconds. Recent measured figures have progressed to about 317 milliseconds.

AlpenGlow will introduce only Voter in the first stage, and will implement a second stage separately after finalising specifications, including Rotor, which replaces the Turbine block propagation method. FireDancer, a validator client developed by independent company Jump, has been producing blocks on the mainnet since December last year. Jacob Creech (제이콥 크리치), vice president of technology at the Solana Foundation, said in a post late last month that stakeholders will gather at the industry event Scale or Die in November after this update.