Ethereum Fast Confirmation Rule Aims to Cut Transaction Delays

Ethereum researcher Julian Ma has proposed a new rule that would significantly reduce transaction confirmation times on the Ethereum mainnet. The Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR) aims to cut deposit times from Layer 2 networks and centralized exchanges from around 13 minutes to approximately 13 seconds.

The proposal, which Vitalik Buterin endorsed, targets one of the most persistent issues in the Ethereum ecosystem: the delay incurred when moving assets between layers. Currently, most platforms rely on 'k-deep' confirmation rules, which offer no formal security guarantees.

FCR replaces this heuristic with an attestation-based model that counts validator votes rather than blocks. Under FCR, a block is treated as confirmed once sufficient validator attestations have accumulated - a process that takes roughly 13 seconds under normal network conditions.