Ethereum researcher Ben Edgington, alongside Francesco D’Amato, Roberto Saltini, Yann Vonlanthen, and Mikhail Kalinin, officially submitted a draft network upgrade proposal on Wednesday (10/21/2026). The proposal aims to cut the time required for transactions to reach finality from around 16 minutes to approximately 4 minutes, roughly four times faster than the current system.
The key to this acceleration does not lie in adding new validators, but rather in a fundamental separation of voting procedures.
One Vote for Two Different Tasks
Under the current mechanism, each validator casts a single vote to perform two functions simultaneously: selecting the next block and permanently locking past blocks. This coupling means that network finality requires two full rounds of validator voting rotations before transactions become irreversibly locked.
The new draft splits voting into two independent roles. Through this separation, developers can accelerate progressive transaction locking cycles without being constrained by block selection rotations. Validators can process transaction settlement with greater flexibility without waiting for the next rotation cycle.
Decoupling voting roles also eases the future integration of quantum-resistant signatures. When advances in quantum technology begin to threaten conventional cryptography, an independent voting structure will allow developers to implement new encryption protections without overhauling block selection mechanisms.
Impact on Crypto Bridges and USDC
Cutting finality time to four minutes directly enhances capital efficiency. Four-minute finality is projected to reduce capital held up in cross-chain transfer services, preventing assets from sitting idle in bridging channels for extended periods.
Beyond saving capital on cross-chain bridges, the scheme could potentially lift caps on instant transfer amounts, such as those imposed by Circle on USDC. Shorter transaction locking times reduce the risk of block reorganizations, giving service providers room to ease limits on instant transfer volumes.
A comparison with competitors further highlights this efficiency landscape. As a Layer-1 benchmark, the Solana network recently rolled out its Alpenglow upgrade, which targets transaction finality in around 150 milliseconds.
Early Stage With No Activation Timeline
Despite offering both time and capital efficiencies, this upgrade design remains in its early stages. No official activation timeline has been scheduled to implement the proposal on the Ethereum mainnet.
Researchers are still hashing out several key technical parameters, including validator penalty rules, voting window durations, and an exhaustive security analysis. All these aspects must be agreed upon before the draft receives an official improvement proposal number.
For market participants who frequently use cross-chain transfers, the draft promises significantly smoother capital turnover. However, until all security parameters are finalized and thoroughly tested, Ethereum users must continue to contend with the 16-minute wait.
Reported via CoinDesk.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
