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Solana's block production targets 400ms per slot — orders of magnitude faster than Ethereum's 12s. Slots and blocks are usually 1:1 but can diverge (skipped slots). Understanding the slot-time model is foundational for everything timing-related: transaction expiry, oracle staleness, validator scheduling.
Slot economics.
getSlot() and getBlockHeight() simultaneously; observe the difference (= skipped slots).getRecentPrioritizationFees timing — note variance under load.Slot duration: target 400ms
Real-world: 400-800ms (varies with validator load)
100,000 slots/day ≈ 100 slots/sec at peak
Block production per slot:
Slot leader (selected by stake-weighted lottery for next ~432k slots)
Leader proposes a block by producing N "entries" (~64 ticks per slot)
Entries are bundled into a block; block hash anchors to next slot's leader
Slot vs block:
- 1:1 in steady state
- Slot can be SKIPPED if leader is offline or proposes late
- Skipped slots have no block; the chain proceeds to next slot's leader
Implications:
Transaction expiry: blockhash expires after ~150 blocks (~60s)
Pyth pull oracles: publishers can update every slot (~400ms freshness)
TWAP windows: a 5-min TWAP is 750 slots (vs 25 ETH blocks)
Cron / time-locked: use slot count, not wall-clock (slot is monotonic)