Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Solana core developers have pushed a sweeping consensus overhaul, “Alpenglow” (SIMD-0326), into the ecosystem’s formal governance track, setting up a validator vote that, if approved, would replace TowerBFT and re-architect finality and validator incentives on mainnet-beta. The proposal’s authors—Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski, and Roger Wattenhofer—describe Alpenglow as “a major overhaul of Solana’s core consensus protocol,” designed to supplant “the existing Proof-of-History and TowerBFT mechanisms” with a design that targets block finalization “as low as 100–150 milliseconds.”

Voting Process For Solana ‘Alpenglow’ Starts

The governance post lays out a three-phase timeline: discussion through epochs 833–838, stake-weight capture in epoch 839, and a binding vote across epochs 840–842 using claimable vote tokens sent to “Yes,” “No,” or “Abstain” accounts. Passage hinges on a supermajority threshold: Yes must be at least two-thirds of Yes+No, with a 33% quorum that counts abstentions. As of today, Solana is in epoch 834, making the discussion window active and the vote window scheduled several epochs out.

At the heart of Alpenglow is Votor, a direct-vote, leader-pipelined finality protocol that shifts Solana away from on-chain vote transactions and heavy gossip toward off-chain vote exchange with local signature aggregation. Validators vote to notarize or skip blocks; leaders aggregate those votes eight slots later and submit compact proofs. The authors argue this design cuts latency dramatically and reduces bandwidth, while a “20+20” liveliness model aims to tolerate up to 20% adversarial and 20% unresponsive validators without halting progress. “Alpenglow… enables much lower latency, improved fault tolerance, and generally greater protocol efficiency,” the post asserts.

The upgrade also rewires validator economics. Because voting moves off-chain, the SIMD introduces a Validator Admission Ticket (VAT), a fixed per-epoch fee “initially set to 1.6 SOL per epoch,” burned to maintain an economic barrier roughly comparable to today’s on-chain vote-fee regime. Validators are “required to cast exactly one valid vote per slot”; conflicting votes are detectable, and persistent non-participation renders a validator ineligible for rewards and at risk of removal from the active set.

Leaders receive compensation equal to the per-slot vote rewards of the votes they aggregate, plus a flat bonus when they include fast-finalization/finalization certificates. In a follow-up thread post, Wattenhofer explains the 1.6 SOL figure as approximately 80% of current vote costs to ensure no operator is worse off at the “AlpenSwitch.”

If adopted, Alpenglow would make a visible semantic change at the client layer: the authors note that optimistic confirmation would be superseded by actual finality at sub-second timescales. The stated aim is to bring confirmation latencies in line with Web2 user expectations while tightening safety guarantees that were harder to formalize under TowerBFT. The proposal’s documentation points readers to a 50+ page white paper and independent analyses, but emphasizes that the initial rollout focuses on finalization and voting; a new data dissemination protocol, Rotor, would follow in a separate SIMD.

Governance mechanics for the vote mirror Solana’s prior advisory processes but with higher stakes. Vote tokens will be claimable via an adapted Merkle distributor; validators then send those tokens to the designated choice accounts during the epoch-bounded window. The foundation’s governance post states, “If the sum of Yes votes is equal to or greater than 2/3 of the total sum of Yes + No votes, the proposal will pass,” and “Abstain” contributes to quorum but not to the supermajority tally. Stake weights and a public tally script will be published for independent verification.

Community feedback has quickly homed in on operational risk and rollout discipline. One validator-oriented response urges the SIMD authors to embed “a testing, deployment and fallback plan” before a mainnet decision, likening the scope of change to other industry-scale protocol transitions. Others probe specifics around the VAT level, transaction expiry in a post-PoH world, leader equivocation handling, and effects on MEV auctions and client UX when slices of a block are ignored under certain failure modes. These threads underscore that while the performance headline—150 ms finality—is eye-catching, the vote will likely hinge on the comfort level with safety proofs, incentive edge-cases, and the migration path.

At press time, SOL traded at $181.89.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

Cardano (ADA) has achieved a significant milestone with the successful completion of its first-ever on-chain governance vote. For the first time, core development funding has been directly approved by the Cardano community, marking a significant step forward in the blockchain’s transition to fully decentralized governance. Reacting to the milestone, Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, shared his thoughts on the network’s progress. 

Cardano Enters New Era Of Decentralized Governance

The Cardano ecosystem has reached a pivotal moment in its growth and evolution, marking a historic milestone with the recent execution of its first governance vote. The landmark event signals the beginning of a new phase for the blockchain, where decisions around core development funding are now being made directly by the community rather than centralized entities.

Related Reading

Hoskinson publicly acknowledged the significance of the event in an X social media post on August 3. He praised the community for their support and trust, reinforcing the belief that decentralized governance is not just a vision but now an operational reality within the Cardano ecosystem. 

Hoskinson’s remarks came in response to an earlier post by Input Output Global (IOG), a blockchain research and development company behind Cardano’s development. IOG had commemorated the blockchain’s recent governance achievement by stating that the Cardano community had officially made history. 

The governance vote had approved direct funding for core development initiatives, representing a foundational shift in how the Cardano ecosystem grows and evolves. Rather than relying on a small group of decision-makers, the blockchain now empowers its global community to determine resource allocation collectively. Input Output Global praised both Cardano and its community’s efforts, calling the recent milestone the beginning of a new era of decentralized governance. 

Notably, the broader crypto community is already responding with enthusiasm, with many offering congratulations and support as Cardano celebrates this landmark event. The network’s successful governance vote sets a powerful precedent in the crypto industry, showcasing the potential of a blockchain governed directly by its users. 

Cardano Becomes Only Top 10 With On-Chain Governance 

In addition to its historic governance vote, Cardano has emerged as the only top 10 cryptocurrency by market capitalization to implement on-chain governance, setting a new benchmark for how blockchain ecosystems are managed and governed. 

Related Reading

According to a report by Cardanians (CRDN) on X, the blockchain’s governance framework is actively functioning, with 39 treasury withdrawal proposals currently open for voting. These proposals allow Delegated Representatives (DReps) and the broader community to directly participate in shaping the ecosystem by deciding which initiatives receive funding and move forward.

As of now, none of the other top 10 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, USDT, Binance Coin, Solana, USDC, Tron, and Dogecoin, have matched Cardano’s level of on-chain decision-making power. While these cryptocurrencies continue to lead in various areas, Cardano stands out as the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap with a uniquely advanced governance system.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com

The House is considering a proposal that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to examine how distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, can enhance the agency’s claims systems. 

The “Veterans Affairs Distributed Ledger Innovation Act of 2025” (H.R. 3455), introduced May 15 by Rep. Nancy Mace, passed its first checkpoint with a June 11 hearing before the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. 

The measure now waits for a vote by the full chamber.

The bill directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to conduct a comprehensive study on whether distributed ledgers can enhance the transparency, traceability, and resistance to fraud, waste, and abuse of benefits adjudication. 

Lawmakers frame the effort as a response to persistent complaints about slow, opaque processing and data errors that can delay or misdirect payments owed to veterans.

Immutable records

Under the text, the VA must explore how a distributed ledger could securely log each step in a claim, verify information to weed out false filings, and flag irregularities in benefit delivery.

The department would need to consult technologists, veterans’ service organizations, and other federal agencies that are already experimenting with distributed ledgers. 

Within a year of enactment, the Secretary would report back to Congress with findings on the feasibility, benefits, and risks, along with recommendations for pilot programs and any statutory or administrative changes necessary to deploy the technology.

The bill also spells out what it means by a distributed ledger. By codifying the definition, lawmakers aim to avoid confusion over whether the VA could satisfy the mandate with a conventional database dressed up in new terminology.

If the House approves the measure, it would move to the Senate for consideration. 

Notably, the veteran-related proposal now sits alongside other bills, such as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, authored by Rep. Tom Emmer, and the Deploying American Blockchains Act, introduced by Rep. Bernie Moreno.

Mentioned in this article

World Liberty Financial announced that its WLFI governance token will begin trading within six to eight weeks of July 18, completing a community mandate that authorized on-chain transfers and secondary market access. 

According to the project’s announcement on X, the team will use the lead time to finalize “strategic alignments,” such as exchange listings and staged unlock schedules, aimed at broad participant inclusion.

Governance approval and unlock framework

Token holders cleared the path to tradability with an overwhelming ballot that closed July 16. Voting data in the proposal forum showed 11.1 billion WLFI, approximately 99.94% of participating supply, supporting the plan to lift transfer restrictions. 

The governance measure was first posted on July 4 and transitioned to on-chain voting on July 9. Under the directive, the core team will transition WLFI from a closed ledger to a permissionless circulation model, allowing holders to move tokens peer-to-peer and list them on external venues.

The framework introduces phased unlocks. Early supporters gain immediate liquidity when trading opens, while founder, team, and adviser allocations stay locked under a longer vesting curve that requires a separate community vote. 

Project documents state that the second vote will also decide emission parameters, incentive programs, and treasury actions once WLFI operates in open markets.

Project background and next actions

World Liberty Financial positions itself as a decentralized finance and digital wealth platform backed by former President Donald Trump and his family. 

The application bridges traditional financial services with on‑chain products, including the WLFI token and the USD‑pegged stablecoin USD1. Launch materials describe the project’s objective as maintaining the dollar’s role in global settlement through dollar‑denominated stablecoins.

With governance clearance in hand, the development team plans to activate transfer functionality, trigger the first tranche of early‑supporter unlocks, and prepare a follow‑up vote on locked allocations. 

The X thread said the interim period will focus on forging “powerhouse deals” and “epic listings” that could reshape WLFI’s market reach. 

It also signaled upcoming entry options for users who did not participate in earlier rounds, noting that “new paths are opening for those who missed out.”

World Liberty Financial will publish implementation specifics, including any eligibility screens, in a separate update before trading begins.

Mentioned in this article

The Senate Agriculture Committee will consider President Donald Trump’s nominee for chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Brian Quintenz, as lawmakers weigh a broader shift in crypto regulation that could dramatically expand the agency’s role.

The committee is scheduled to review Quintenz’s nomination during a July 21 hearing, ahead of a full Senate vote regarding his appointment expected next week.

His confirmation would come at a pivotal moment as Congress debates the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act legislation. The legislation aims to establish a clear regulatory framework for the digital asset industry and designate a primary supervisor.

Quintenz, a former CFTC commissioner, may have to lead the agency alone. Acting Chair Caroline Pham and Commissioner Kristin Johnson are both anticipated to depart by the end of 2025, and no additional nominations have been announced.

The CLARITY Act, which passed the House on July 17 with bipartisan support, proposes a regulatory framework that would designate the CFTC as the lead watchdog for most digital commodities, including crypto.

Its future in the Senate remains uncertain, with possible amendments and political divisions still in play. Senate Banking Committee leaders have expressed interest in moving the bill forward before October, though no formal vote has been scheduled.

If passed, the legislation could recalibrate the balance of power between the CFTC and the SEC, the nation’s two primary financial regulators.

While the crypto industry has largely backed the bill as a step toward clearer oversight, regulatory leadership changes may complicate implementation.

The CFTC’s existing leadership has signaled support for the proposed reforms, emphasizing the agency’s readiness to adapt.

Should Quintenz be confirmed without further appointments, he may find himself guiding the CFTC through one of the most consequential shifts in its history without additional support.

Mentioned in this article

The Department of the Treasury is formally taking down a new rule that expanded the definition of a broker under the U.S. Tax Code.

The rule titled “Gross Proceeds Reporting by Brokers that Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales” classified decentralized finance (DeFi) exchanges as brokers required to furnish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with information on user transactions involving digital assets.

The rule was published in the Federal Register on December 30th during the final weeks of the Biden administration and took effect on February 28th.

In March, legislators from both chambers of Congress voted to repeal the controversial law, a move supported by President Donald Trump, who signed the bill reversing the crypto broker rule on April 11th.

The Treasury Department says the controversial rule now has no legal force or effect.

“Pursuant to the CRA (Congressional Review Act), any rule that takes effect and later is made of no force or effect by enactment of a joint resolution shall be treated as though such rule had never taken effect. Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS are reverting the text of the section 6045 regulations back to the text that was in effect immediately prior to the effective date of the Final Rule.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance platform linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s family, has unveiled a proposal that would allow its WLFI governance token to become transferable and tradeable across the wider crypto market.

Currently confined within its own protocol, the WLFI token cannot be traded externally, restricting price discovery and limiting participation in governance. The team initially hinted at the new proposal last month.

The new proposal aims to shift the project toward a more open and decentralized model by enabling token trading on secondary markets such as decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer platforms.

If the community endorses the plan, holders of WLFI tokens will gain expanded voting powers over key areas, including token emissions, ecosystem incentives, and treasury management.

The initiative comes as Trump’s deep involvement in digital assets continues to draw criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who have raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Transitioning WLFI to a decentralized structure could ease some of the political pressure currently stalling comprehensive crypto regulation efforts in Congress.

The Trump family recently reduced its ownership stake in World Liberty Financial by 20%, down from an initial 75% holding. Financial disclosures filed in June showed that President Trump had recorded $57 million in profits from WLFI alone.

Across his broader digital asset portfolio, including the Official Trump memecoin, non-fungible token sales, and holdings in other cryptocurrencies, Trump’s net worth has grown by an estimated $620 million. Digital assets now account for about 9% of his total $6.4 billion fortune.

In June, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff introduced the COIN Act in response to the president’s crypto ventures. The act seeks to prohibit the President, executive branch officials, and their immediate families from issuing or promoting specific cryptocurrencies while in office.

WLFI is also conducting an independent audit of its USD1 stablecoin, which is seen as having strong potential to become a significant player in the market. USD1 currently has a circulating supply of $2.2 billion and was recently airdropped to WLFI holders to test on-chain distribution.

Mentioned in this article

You can see it from the stock price: Not a lot of people are taking Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 3.35%) seriously right now as a competitor to its much larger rival, Nvidia. Even though many stocks involved in artificial intelligence (AI) have been hot buys, Advanced Micro Devices, also known as AMD, has been lagging behind.

Over the past 12 months, shares of AMD are down 20%, while Nvidia’s have risen by around 14% (as of June 23). And if you stretch out the time frame even further, the difference becomes wider.

AMD was a bit late in launching AI accelerators, but it may finally be closing the hardware performance gap and possibly even catching up to Nvidia. It recently announced its latest AI chips, and one person who is excited about them is none other than OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Image source: Getty Images.

Altman is a fan and will be a buyer of the new chips

AMD CEO Lisa Su unveiled the Instinct MI400 line of chips a few weeks ago. They’ll start shipping to customers next year. The chips can be tied together in a rack solution called “Helios,” which Su says “functions like a single, massive compute engine.” OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, will use the new chips, and Altman is excited about their potential. “It’s gonna be an amazing thing.”

The hope at AMD is that these new chips will take some market share from Nvidia, which has been far and away the leading AI chipmaker in the market thus far. With the MI400s earning a favorable endorsement from Altman, and considering AMD’s plans to price them aggressively, faster growth could be ahead for the chipmaker.

AMD’s growth rate has already been improving

In recent quarters, AMD’s results have been looking better and its growth rate has started to accelerate again.

AMD Operating Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts.

If its growth rate can remain strong, that could attract the types of AI investors who are specifically seeking out riskier stocks with lots of upside potential. AMD’s valuation of $210 billion is just a fraction of Nvidia’s $3.5 billion market cap. But while Nvidia has been a beast in the AI sphere, investors today may be wondering just how much higher it can go given that it’s already among the three most valuable companies in the world. This is where AMD may be a more compelling option.

However, for AMD to win over investors, it will need to not only grow its sales but its bottom line as well; currently, the stock trades at more than 90 times its trailing earnings, and even its forward earnings multiple (based on analysts’ consensus estimates) is 34, which is still a bit high. The S&P 500‘s forward price-to-earnings ratio is 23.

Setting prices for its AI chips at aggressively low levels could help them win market share, but it may also hurt AMD’s margins, which is why it will be imperative for investors to pay close attention to AMD’s gross margins to see if they are declining as it rolls out its newest chips.

Is AMD stock a buy right now?

Shares of AMD have been rallying over the past few months, and the business has a lot of potential to rise in value over the years. By working closely with Altman and the OpenAI team, and gaining feedback on its chips, AMD can ensure that its products meet the needs of key customers and hyperscalers.

AMD looks like a good stock to buy right now as its growth rate has been improving, and the best may still be to come as it starts rolling out its Instinct MI400 chips. Although its margins may take a hit in the near term, proving that its chips can be formidable alternatives to Nvidia’s chips will arguably be much more important to AMD in the long run.

A new proposal from HOT Protocol, a decentralized group operating on the NEAR Protocol, has called for a significant reduction in the AI crypto project‘s token inflation rate.

On June 24, the decentralized organization submitted a plan to slash NEAR’s annual inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%. The proposal aims to enhance the long-term sustainability of the crypto project’s token and realign incentives across the network.

According to the proposal, the current 5% inflation rate has become a liability, harming NEAR’s competitiveness by “causing unnecessary token supply growth and dilution.”

HOT protocol explained that NEAR’s inflation rate was designed with the assumption that fee burns from high transaction volumes would offset much of the supply growth. In practice, however, only 0.1% of the token supply was burned over the past year.

As a result, the full inflation rate continues to inflate the circulating supply by over 60 million NEAR annually, outpacing actual network growth and user activity.

To counter this, the new proposal suggests reducing the staking yield from 9% to 4.5%, which could make NEAR-based DeFi offerings more competitive.

While this might lead some validators to exit, it also opens space for new demand-generating features, including transaction fee revenue from Intent-based models.

The DAO highlighted the importance of its proposal, stating:

“Reducing NEAR’s inflation is an urgent priority. Every additional month of the status quo means millions of new NEAR entering circulation, which is not only dilutive but also unnecessary given the low fee burn. High inflation without high usage is unsustainable.”

Community support

The proposal has drawn strong backing from the NEAR ecosystem, with many industry players expressing support.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, endorsed the plan, saying it better positions NEAR as a potential store of value in emerging AI-focused environments.

He also highlighted the need to reduce the reliance on staking as the primary source of yield, a dynamic that has limited DeFi innovation on NEAR so far.

Avichal Garg, the co-founder of Electric Capital, echoed similar views, while adding:

“[I am a] big fan of this for the NEAR ecosystem. The future of crypto [is] lower emissions, fee switches to drive revenue to tokenholders, and [rewarding] long-term holders via more revenue.”

Meanwhile, the proposal is currently undergoing a validator vote and requires a two-thirds majority to pass. As of press time, 13.36% of the required 66.67% threshold has been secured.

If approved, implementation is expected by Q3 2025, pending a smooth technical rollout and final community validation.