Alephium Danube Upgrade Set for July 15, Promises Major Web3 Improvements

The Alephium Danube upgrade will activate on July 15, introducing faster block times, groupless addresses, and passkey onboarding.

Alephium Danube Upgrade Launches July 15

Alephium has officially scheduled its highly anticipated Danube upgrade for July 15, 2025, at 12:00 GMT+2. The Alephium Danube upgrade is set to deliver significant improvements in scalability, speed, onboarding, and developer experience, marking a new chapter for the UTXO-based Layer 1 blockchain.

The upgrade introduces major changes including 8-second block times, groupless addresses for seamless cross-shard transactions, and passkey support for secure, seedless user onboarding. These features aim to enhance Alephium’s position as a fast, energy-efficient, and developer-friendly Proof-of-Work chain.

Key Features of the Alephium Danube Upgrade

• Faster Block Production: Alephium will now process 2 blocks per second, cutting confirmation times in half and improving dApp responsiveness.
• Groupless Addresses: Users will no longer need to manage multiple shard-specific addresses. One unified address works across all shards.
• Passkey Onboarding: Login using Face ID, Touch ID, or YubiKey—seed phrases become optional, streamlining wallet access.
• Chained Transactions: Developers can now reuse assets across multiple smart contract calls in a single transaction.
• Optimized Syncing: Node sync speeds are up to 3x faster, improving decentralization and node accessibility.
• Tail Emissions: Replaces the previous hard cap with sustainable emissions, aligning with models used by Monero.
• Improved Developer Tools: Bitwise ops for 256-bit integers, simplified contract logic, and access to external callers enable more powerful dApps.

What Has Happened So Far

• Leman Upgrade: Focused on developer tools and core virtual machine upgrades.
• Rhone Upgrade: Reduced block times to 16s and improved dApp performance.
• Danube Testnet: Live testing of new UX, syncing, and consensus optimizations completed in early June 2025.

Alephium’s Next Chapter

With the Alephium Danube upgrade, the project moves closer to delivering the Web3 user experience it has long promised—faster, simpler, and more intuitive. The upgrade also positions Alephium as a serious contender among next-gen Layer 1s by combining UTXO security with Ethereum-like programmability.

Looking ahead, Alephium plans to further expand smart contract capabilities and performance tuning, enabling new dApps in DeFi, identity, and cross-chain infrastructure.

Users and node operators must upgrade to version 4.0.0 before the activation date to ensure smooth participation in the network.