Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed increasing the transaction speed of the blockchain and has put forward several potential strategies to improve network scalability and user experience.
Although Ethereum has made progress recently, with the current transaction confirmation window ranging from 5 to 20 seconds – similar to credit card processing time – Buterin believes that the network can achieve faster confirmations through innovations such as Single Slot Finality (SSF) and Preconfirmations.
This emphasis on speed is crucial as Ethereum faces increasing competition from other blockchains and aims to remain a leading platform for decentralized applications (dApps).
Currently, Ethereum uses the Gasper consensus mechanism, where validators vote on the state of the blockchain every 12 seconds within epochs and time slots. While this system is effective, it is often criticized for its complexity and the 12.8-minute finality time, with many users deeming it unsuitable.
To address these issues, Ethereum is exploring alternatives such as Single Slot Finality, which is influenced by the Tendermint consensus but adapted for Ethereum. SSF aims to accelerate block finality by completing each new block before proposing the next one, significantly reducing the transaction confirmation time.
Another promising approach is Preconfirmations, which delegates transaction approval to second-layer protocols, such as Rollups. These protocols leverage Ethereum’s security while processing transactions on a larger scale and at a higher speed.
This division of work between the first and second layers allows Ethereum’s base layer to focus on core functions such as censorship resistance and stability, while second-layer solutions handle faster transaction processing.