Instant Finality

Instant finality is the concept where a transaction or a block of transactions is considered permanently recorded on the blockchain, with no possibility of alteration or reversal. This concept is fundamental to the security and efficiency of blockchain systems. Achieving finality ensures a guarantee that once a transaction is included in a block and that block is added to the blockchain, the transaction is immutable and irreversible.

Instant finality in Leviathan means that transactions are considered final as soon as they are processed by the sequencer network, with no possibility of reversal. This is crucial for trust and efficiency in high-stakes transaction environments.

Achieving instant finality in blockchain systems requires balancing liveness and safety. Liveness refers to the system's ability to continuously process transactions and add new blocks without interruption, ensuring the network remains active and responsive. However, prioritizing liveness can sometimes compromise safety, especially in systems without instant finality.

Safety ensures that once a transaction is confirmed, it remains unaltered and non-reversible, preventing double-spending and maintaining the blockchain's integrity. Systems with instant finality emphasize safety, making transactions permanently immutable once validated by the network. This is typically achieved through consensus mechanisms requiring significant agreement among validators.

However, prioritizing safety and instant finality can impact liveness, especially in highly decentralized networks with many validators. Thus, blockchain systems must carefully balance these two properties to achieve optimal performance.

Implementation

  • Finality Protocol: Leveraging a robust sequencer network that agrees on the state transitions based on pre-determined rules, ensuring that once a transaction is processed, it is irreversible.

  • Safety vs. Liveness: Prioritizes transaction safety to ensure reliability, sacrificing some degree of liveness to prevent forks and double spends.

System Impact

  • Trust and Reliability: Users and applications can trust that transactions are final and irrevocable, enhancing the platform's reliability.

  • Optimal Resource Utilization: Minimizes the need for reprocessing or reverting transactions, optimizing resource use across the network.

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