Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum can handle temporary loss of finality

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

Computer Science PhD Fabrizio Romano Genovese agrees with Vitalik Buterin's viewpoint, noting that when finality is lost, Ethereum becomes more like Bitcoin. He explained that Ethereum's finality mechanism is that when a block receives over 66% of validator votes, it is "justified," and if it then goes through two Epochs (64 blocks), that block is "finalized."

A spokesperson for Polygon stated that the lack of finality would affect the infrastructure that relies on it, such as certain cross-chain or Layer 2 bridges, but Polygon will continue to operate normally; however, transfers from Ethereum to sidechains may be delayed while waiting for finality to be restored. AggLayer will also delay transactions from Ethereum to L2 until finality is reached again.