Alephium, a unique Layer 1 blockchain utilizing Proof of Work (PoW) alongside native sharding, launched its highly anticipated Danube upgrade on July 15, 2025. The update represents a pivotal point in the project’s roadmap, introducing faster processing speeds, frictionless onboarding, and a user experience designed to rival traditional Web2 platforms.
The Danube release is positioned as a major evolution for the network, featuring a host of technical enhancements targeted at both developers and end-users. Alephium’s team has stated that the upgrade significantly strengthens the platform’s usability while preserving its foundational commitments to decentralization and energy efficiency.
One of the most prominent enhancements in the Danube upgrade is the reduction of block times to just 8 seconds. This change effectively doubles the chain’s throughput to two blocks per second, resulting in confirmation times that compete with some of the leading Proof of Stake chains. Coupled with improvements to its proprietary BlockFlow consensus mechanism, the network now supports over 20,000 transactions per second and enables up to three times faster node synchronization.
Danube also brings an innovative approach to sharding, described as “invisible sharding,” through the introduction of Groupless Addresses. This feature removes the need for users to interact with shard-specific logic, allowing for a more seamless and scalable experience. Alephium is reportedly the first blockchain to implement such a system without introducing additional complexity to the user interface.
Another significant addition is support for Passkeys, enabling biometric logins through Face ID, Touch ID, or hardware devices like YubiKey. With seed phrases becoming optional, the barrier to onboarding new users has been considerably lowered, opening the door for more mainstream adoption.
✦ALEPHIUM’S DANUBE NETWORK UPGRADE IS NOW LIVE ON MAINNET! 🎉 $ALPH pic.twitter.com/jH6hCEDd7c
— Alephium (@alephium) July 15, 2025
Smart contract functionality has also been refined with the ability to perform chained transactions. Developers can now reuse assets across multiple contract calls within a single transaction, optimizing interactions such as token swaps or multi-step financial operations. In addition, the upgrade includes enhancements to the virtual machine, simplifying logic and improving tools for smart contract development. Features like I256 bitwise operations and automatic handling of dust and deposits are aimed at increasing both efficiency and developer accessibility.
🍃 Danube in effect! $ALPH pic.twitter.com/P6YgyGD5IK
— Alephium (@alephium) July 16, 2025
The Alephium team has conveyed that these updates allow decentralized applications on the platform to offer an experience that closely resembles traditional Web2 services—fast, intuitive, and seamless—without compromising the underlying benefits of a PoW network. They consider Danube to be a major stride toward achieving a vision of Web3 where scalability and decentralization are not mutually exclusive.
Alephium is redefining what an L1 can do.
A sustainable PoW delivering the speed of PoS with a single chain experience.
No tradeoffs, no fragmentation.Powerful yet dev friendly smart contracts without the usual attack vectors.
Not just scalable but usable with smooth UX and… https://t.co/GRj8fIMci5 pic.twitter.com/RY1HV5Naqw— Alephium (@alephium) July 16, 2025
The launch of the upgrade comes at a time when the industry is actively discussing the limitations of Layer 2 solutions, such as fragmentation and complexity in implementation. Alephium is positioning itself as a viable Layer 1 alternative that incorporates concepts like account abstraction and stateless architecture natively, eliminating the need for rollups or sidechains.
The mainnet upgrade was executed on July 15 at 12:00 GMT+02:00. Node operators were required to update to the latest version ahead of the scheduled upgrade to maintain compatibility with the network.
Looking ahead, Alephium plans to focus on further reducing network latency, expanding the capabilities of its smart contracts, and demonstrating real-world use cases that showcase the power and efficiency of its revised architecture. With the second-highest total value locked among PoW-based chains, the team views Danube as the starting point for the next chapter in its growth trajectory.