Solana is a high-throughput Layer 1 blockchain that uses Proof of History alongside Tower BFT Proof of Stake consensus. Its current architecture produces sub-second slot times, while transaction finality under Tower BFT takes around 12.8 seconds. Alpenglow upgrade is designed to replace this consensus model and target ~150 ms finality. For latency-sensitive workloads the network itself is rarely the bottleneck — the RPC layer is. Shred propagation, validator client tuning, and streaming overhead decide whether your application sees a block first or last.
GetBlock runs bare-metal Solana clusters across six regions with direct shred feeds from high-stake validators, tuned Agave runtimes, and accelerated Yellowstone gRPC streaming. Transaction landing uses SWQoS validator connections, priority BDN paths, and MEV-aware block engine integration. The result is sub-20 ms RPC response, 100–150 ms faster block discovery, and 95%+ landing probability under congestion — the margins that decide outcomes for HFT desks, MEV searchers, market makers, and indexers.