Ethereum Researchers Propose Cutting Transaction Finality From 16 Minutes to Four
Key points
- Ben Edgington and four co-researchers filed an Ethereum Improvement Proposal on 22 October 2026 targeting a reduction in transaction finality from approximately 16 minutes to roughly four minutes.
- The proposal has no activation date and leaves voting timings, penalties, and parts of its security analysis unresolved; Edgington noted that 'many aspects remain TBD'.
- Ethereum Foundation research estimates that a service pre-funding one million dollars of cross-chain transfers per hour would see idle capital fall from about 267,000 dollars to roughly 67,000 dollars if finality dropped to four minutes.
- Circle already prices around Ethereum's current finality lag, charging 0.01 percent for its fast USDC route and capping the total value of transfers awaiting settlement.
- Solana activated its Alpenglow upgrade on the same day, with a finality target of approximately 150 milliseconds, framing the competitive gap that Ethereum's proposal would need to close.
A group of Ethereum researchers, led by Ben Edgington alongside Francesco D’Amato, Roberto Saltini, Yann Vonlanthen, and Mikhail Kalinin, has filed a draft proposal targeting a fourfold reduction in transaction finality time, from roughly 16 minutes to approximately four. The design is unfinished, carries no activation date, and has been submitted primarily to secure a formal proposal number and enter Ethereum’s upgrade pipeline.
The practical lever here is working capital. Cross-chain transfer services that pre-fund customer payments on the destination chain must keep cash idle until Ethereum’s finality confirms the original transaction. Ethereum Foundation research illustrates the scale: a service fronting a steady one million dollars per hour carries around 267,000 dollars in limbo under the current 16-minute window; at four minutes, that figure falls to roughly 67,000 dollars. Stablecoin infrastructure is already priced around this friction, with Circle charging 0.01 percent for its fast USDC route from Ethereum while capping the total value of transfers awaiting final settlement at any given moment.
The architectural change underpinning the proposal is a separation of validators’ two current voting duties. At present, each validator casts a single vote that simultaneously selects the next block and contributes to locking older blocks as final, meaning finality can only advance as fast as that unified rotation. Splitting the roles onto separate clocks would allow finality to run independently and be tightened incrementally. The researchers also note that the separation would simplify a future migration to quantum-resistant signatures. Even so, four-minute finality would remain considerably slower than Solana, which activated its Alpenglow upgrade on the same day the Ethereum draft was filed, targeting finality in around 150 milliseconds.