Key Points

• When the Shillin Hardfork goes live, this will bring fast finality and an improved user experience to Ronin.
• We’ve reduced the time required for a block to achieve finality from 45 seconds to 6 seconds with this release.
• In the article below, we’ll explain how block finality works by comparing Ronin and Ethereum.

The Shillin Hardfork will be live on Thursday, October 26, 7:00 UTC! This brings fast finality and an improved Ronin user experience to our community. This upgrade was released on the Saigon testnet on September 7th and will be live on the Ronin mainnet on October 26th. With fast finality, users no longer have to face long transaction finalization times—the time required for a block to achieve finality has been reduced from 45 seconds to 6 seconds. Here’s how it works on Ronin:

What is block finality?

A block is considered finalized when it becomes irreversible and is permanently recorded on the blockchain. This means that the transactions in the block have been confirmed and executed. Finality is crucial to the blockchain technology because it ensures transactions cannot be reversed or double-spent.

Ethereum block finality

Ethereum 1.0 (Proof of Work)

Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum 1.0 relied on the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. In this system, miners compete to solve intricate mathematical puzzles. The first miner to solve the puzzle has the right to add a new block. As successive blocks are added to the chain, reversing or altering the blockchain's history becomes exponentially difficult. To ensure security and transaction finality, users should wait 12 blocks. With an average block time of 12 seconds, the estimated finality time is around 144 seconds.

Ethereum 2.0 (Proof of Stake)

After the Merge, Ethereum began using Gasper, a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Finality is achieved through a voting process where validators participate. During each epoch, the validators submit and gather votes, and it requires two epochs to finalize a block. As a result, users should wait at least 2 epochs to finalize a block. Given the block time of 12 seconds and with each epoch having 32 blocks, the total time required to finalize a block in Ethereum 2.0 is at least 768 seconds (12 seconds * 32 blocks * 2 epochs).

Ethereum Goerli Testnet (Proof of Authority)

The Goerli testnet, a public Ethereum testnet, operates on the Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism. In this system, a set of n authorized validators rotate in generating new blocks for the network. To ensure finality and secure transactions, users on the Goerli testnet must wait for 2n/3 + 1 blocks.

Ronin block finality

Ronin’s consensus is a combination of Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) and PoA. Users delegate their own stake to select a set of n=22 validators, then the validators produce blocks in a PoA manner. As a result, it takes 2n/3+1=15 confirmations for a block to be finalized. With a block time of 3 seconds, the finality time is 45 seconds.

Inspired by Ethereum 2.0, the Shillin Hardfork on Ronin introduces a voting process to speed up block finalization. Due to a large number of validators on Ethereum 2.0, it requires two epochs (each comprising 32 blocks) to collect validators' votes. But because Ronin uses DPoS, only 22 validators are selected. Hence, the voting process can be done in two blocks and users only need to wait 6 seconds to finalize a block.

Final Thoughts

We’re constantly looking for ways to improve the Ronin gamer experience. This update will make Ronin faster and smoother, allowing us to attract more players, more games, and ultimately, more value.

We will be the king of the gaming chains.