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Solana method

getLatestBlockhash

Returns a recent blockhash and the last block height at which it stays valid.

cheapCheap for a provider to serve — no state is read, or one key is.Primary specification (opens in a new tab)

How each provider handles it

This method has not been measured in this window.

It is scheduled but no observation has landed yet.

What it does

Every Solana transaction must reference a recent blockhash. It serves as both a nonce and an expiry: a transaction whose blockhash is older than about 150 blocks is rejected outright.

That makes this call unavoidable and time-critical. A stale blockhash from a lagging provider gives the transaction a shorter usable life, and one that is too old fails immediately.

Parameters

configObjectoptional
commitment and minContextSlot.Default: finalized

Returns

Object with blockhash (base-58) and lastValidBlockHeight.

Try it

Runnable as written, against a keyless public endpoint. Nothing here needs an API key.

Request

curl -s https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"getLatestBlockhash","params":[{"commitment":"processed"}]}'

As JSON-RPC

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "getLatestBlockhash",
  "params": [{ "commitment": "processed" }]
}

Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {
    "context": { "apiVersion": "2.1.11", "slot": 372145830 },
    "value": {
      "blockhash": "EkSnNWid2cvwEVnVx9aBqawnmiCNiDgp3gUdkDPTKN1N",
      "lastValidBlockHeight": 372145980
    }
  },
  "id": 1
}

Things that bite

  • The real answer is under result.value; result.context.slot tells you which slot the node answered from. Most Solana methods have this envelope and callers routinely forget it.
  • lastValidBlockHeight counts blocks, not slots. Because slots are skipped, the two numbers drift apart and are not interchangeable.

Why it is measured

It sits on the critical path of every Solana transaction, so its latency is paid by every user of every application on the chain.

Called every 30 seconds per endpoint, with jitter so the fleet does not hit a provider in lockstep.

7d window · generated 2026-08-24 15:46:42 UTC · 0 providers