- Vitalik urges balance as faster Ethereum finality risks excluding non-US nodes while decentralization remains the chain’s heartbeat.
- ZKsync’s Alex warns that Ethereum L2s rely on L1 speed, showing how bottlenecks cascade through the scaling ecosystem.
- Paradigm’s Tempo bets on fast finality and neutrality with permissionless rails aimed at real-world crypto payments adoption.
Ethereum’s roadmap has once again taken center stage as leading voices in the crypto community debated how to achieve faster transaction finality. The conversation ignited after researcher Barnabé Monnot shared progress on reducing slot times and improving Ethereum’s confirmation speed.
Ethereum Cofounder Vitalik stressed that shorter slot times could work, but he cautioned that Ethereum must better measure geographic decentralization. He emphasized ensuring non–data-center nodes remain viable, especially outside the US and EU. Without this balance, faster finality could compromise Ethereum’s decentralization, which remains its most critical strength.
Calls for Fast Finality and L1 Bottlenecks
Barnabé outlined multiple initiatives, including exposing fast confirmation rules, deploying new consensus mechanisms, and studying attestation timings. He argued that these upgrades would reduce delays from inclusion to finality, bringing confirmation times closer to ten to thirty seconds.
However, Alex Glukhovsky, co-founder of ZKsync, reminded the community that L2s depend fully on L1 finality. He noted that while L2s can innovate, the Ethereum base layer must accelerate its progress rate for any meaningful improvement. His comments highlight how Ethereum’s bottlenecks ripple across its scaling ecosystem.
Paradigm’s Tempo Vision
Paradigm’s Matt Huang added another layer to the debate by introducing Tempo, a new permissionless blockchain designed for payments. Huang stressed that Tempo will launch with decentralization in mind, offering permissionless validation and smart contract deployment. Unlike single-sequencer L2s, Tempo will focus on multiple validators, fast finality, and custom transaction lanes.
He explained that while L2s are powerful, they inherit Ethereum’s limitations. Tempo instead aims to onboard institutions to crypto rails without sacrificing neutrality. Huang also presented Tempo as a chain that prioritizes stablecoins and whose interoperability depends less on Ethereum bridges and more on native issuance.
The discussion over Ethereum’s finality highlights the conflict between decentralization and speed. The industry is faced with a crucial decision: optimize Ethereum’s heartbeat or create additional payment rails as Vitalik, L2 builders, and Paradigm consider options.
