Ethereum's Fast Confirmation Rule Set to Slash Deposit Times by Up to 98%

The Ethereum Foundation's Julian Ma has proposed a new rule called Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR) that would significantly reduce deposit times on the Ethereum network. According to FCR, blocks are confirmed in approximately 13 seconds, which is a significant improvement from the current 13 minutes. This is made possible by an attestation-based model that counts validator votes rather than blocks.

Co-founder Vitalik Buterin endorsed the proposal, stating that it provides 'a hard guarantee that Ethereum will not revert after one slot (12 seconds)'. The FCR operates below Ethereum's formal finality and relies on two explicit assumptions: that the network delivers attestations within approximately 8 seconds, and that no single actor controls more than 25% of staked ETH.

Ma described FCR as degrading gracefully, stating that 'As soon as sufficiently many attestations are delivered, the block is fast-confirmed. In the worst case, FCR falls back to finality.' The proposal has already gained traction, with consensus layer client teams working on implementations. Ma estimates an '80-98% reduction' in deposit times for most Layer 2 networks and exchanges.