Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum can handle temporary loss of finality

ChainCatcher reported that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated on the X platform that occasionally losing finality is not a big deal, as finality is intended to ensure that blocks are not rolled back. If, due to a significant client error, finality is occasionally delayed by several hours, as long as erroneous blocks are not ultimately finalized, this situation is acceptable, and the chain will continue to operate during this period.

Computer science PhD Fabrizio Romano Genovese agreed with Vitalik Buterin's view, noting that when finality is lost, Ethereum becomes more like Bitcoin. He explained that Ethereum's finality mechanism works such that when a block receives more than 66% of validator votes, it is "justified," and after two more epochs (64 blocks), the block is "finalized."

A spokesperson for Polygon stated that the lack of finality would affect infrastructure that relies on it, such as certain cross-chain or Layer2 bridges, but Polygon will continue to operate normally. However, transfers from Ethereum to sidechains may be delayed, waiting for finality to be restored. AggLayer will also delay transactions from Ethereum to L2 until finality is achieved again.