How it works
Every number on GLOWCLOCK comes from live samples of Solana mainnet. Nothing is invented, and every figure is labeled with its source.
What we measure
- Finality: time from the first shred of a slot reaching our node to the slot being rooted (finalized). If the first shred was missed we fall back to the time the slot completed.
- Confirmation: the same start point, ending at the optimistic-confirmation event.
- Tip lag: (processed slot − finalized slot) × average slot time.
- Slot time: average over the last five performance samples reported by the RPC.
Pipeline
GLOWCLOCK samples finalized, confirmed and processed slots from Solana mainnet RPC every second and derives finality lag from the distance between them. When the optional always-on worker is running, it additionally records per-slot timings for 48 hours. The website only reads those records. Provider keys never reach your browser.
Before vs after
The switch happened at slot 459,653,000 on 21 Oct 2026. The Before panel is labeled MEASURED only when our worker recorded slots below that number. Otherwise it shows a published reference, labeled PUBLISHED REFERENCE, which we did not measure: Galaxy Research. The two are never mixed.
Limits
- Observed by GLOWCLOCK's RPC node timestamps; includes network delay to our node; ±poll/notification jitter.
- Transactions outside the recorded window show “measurement unavailable”. We never estimate silently.
- Live stopwatch timing is when our server saw the status change, not protocol time.
- Failed transactions are not measured and cannot be added to the board.