#Ethereum co-founder – Vitalik Buterin, has provided tips on how to speed up transaction confirmations on the Ethereum blockchain network.
In a June 30 blog post, Vitalik Buterin explained that Ethereum's Gasper consensus mechanism uses a slot-and-epoch architecture that contains certain complexities.
That's like bug interactions and a confirmation time of 12.8 minutes, which makes it “increasingly inconvenient” for the user experience.
So, he highlighted some of the “practical options” that Ethereum has to further improve its user experience.
Here are some tips Buterin gave about speeding up $ETH transaction confirmation.
Tips for speeding up Ethereum transaction confirmations by Vitalik Buterin
#1: Rollup Preconfirmation
The preconfirmation rollup aims to improve Ethereum's Layer 2 (L2) solution.
This solution processes transactions with the same security as Ethereum's base layer (L1) but on a larger scale.
Rollup confirms transactions much faster than the current 5-20 seconds, targeting hundreds of milliseconds of latency.
This method divides the responsibilities – the L1 network remains stable, censorship-resistant, and reliable.
Meanwhile L2 offers faster transaction times and meets user needs directly.
To achieve faster confirmation, L2 created a decentralized sequencing network.
These networks have smaller groups of validators who quickly sign blocks, often within milliseconds, and bind them to the blockchain.
However, validators must ensure their commitments are consistent and trustworthy. If validators sign conflicting blocks, they risk losing their deposits.
#2: SSF
Vitalik Buterin stated that the single-slot finality (SSF) mechanism is similar to the Tendermint consensus, as it allows the finalization of blocks immediately after they are produced.
However, unlike the Tendermint consensus, Ethereum will maintain an “inactive leak” mechanism to allow the chain to remain functional even if a third of the validators go offline.
Buterin added that the single slot finality mechanism also had errors.
Specifically, all Ethereum stakers must publish two messages every 12 seconds, putting a strain on the chain.
Meanwhile, Buterin continued that even though there are ideas to mitigate this problem, users may still have to wait 5-20 seconds.
“There are smart ideas for how to mitigate this, including the recent SSF Orbit proposal,” Buterin said, continuing;
“But even so, while this improves the UX significantly by making ‘finality’ come faster, it doesn't change the fact that users have to wait 5-20 seconds.”
#3: Based on preconfirmation
Based on the preconfirmation leveraging the advanced capabilities of Ethereum proponents, driven by the prospect of Maximum Extractable Value (MEV).
This concept involves establishing a standard protocol for which users can pay additional fees.
That fee is for an immediate guarantee that their transaction will be included in a future block.
This service, known as preconfirmation-as-a-service, will assure users of fast transaction confirmation.
Proposers who fail to fulfill their commitments or violate the agreement face penalties (withholding).
Buterin noted that this framework will apply to L1 transactions and extend to L2 solutions.
By treating all L2 blocks as L1 transactions, the preconfirmation mechanism ensures accelerated confirmations across the Ethereum network.
Buterin noted that Ethereum implementing SSF and rollup or preconfirmation based can significantly reduce transaction confirmation times.
However, he points out that this would be a return to the early “age-and-slot architecture” that #Blockchain was trying to discard.
“There are deep philosophical reasons why era-and-slot architecture seems so hard to escape,” says Vitalik Buterin, continuing;
“It inherently takes less time to get close to agreement on something, than it does to reach a maximally hardened ‘economic finality’ agreement on it.”
He suggested that network developers explore other options that are not as tightly coupled as Gasper to speed up transaction confirmations on the Ethereum network.
