Settlement Finality

	Network	Fastest Confirmation	Soft Finality	Hard Finality	Type	Uptime / Downtime
1	SUI SuiNarwhal / Bullshark (DAG)	<100ms i Object-level DAG consensus. Independent objects finalize without global ordering. Fastest confirmation IS hard finality — no gap between the two.	Near-instant	Near-instant Soft = hard, no gap	Instant / DAG	~99.9% No major consensus halts. Young network (~2023); limited long-term stress-test history.
2	APT AptosBlock-STM + BFT	<1 sec i Full block via Block-STM parallel execution with BFT consensus. Near-instant finality — soft and hard finality are effectively the same.	Near-instant	Near-instant	Instant	~99.9% No major consensus halts. Young network (~2022); limited long-term history.
3	ARB Arbitrum OneL2 Optimistic Rollup	~250ms i Native full blocks at 250ms (configurable to 100ms on Orbit). Timeboost express lane: immediate. Non-express lane: ~450ms due to 200ms artificial delay. Real block — not a preconfirmation.	~250–450ms Sequencer trust · Offchain Labs	~13 min Ethereum L1 · 7-day withdrawal	Sequencer (L2)	~99.6% 3 sequencer outages: Jan 2022 (~10h), Jun 2023 (~2h), Dec 2023 (~3h). ~15h total. Clean since Jan 2024. Underlying chain never at risk.
4	OP OP MainnetL2 Optimistic Rollup · OP Stack	~250ms i Flashblocks: TEE-backed preconfirmations every 250ms within a 2-sec block. Stronger verifiability than a plain sequencer promise, but canonical block closes every 2s — slightly weaker at 250ms than Arbitrum's native full blocks.	~2 sec Full block · Sequencer trust · OP Labs	~13 min Ethereum L1 · 7-day withdrawal	Sequencer (L2)	~99.98% 1 sequencer outage: Feb 2024 (~2h). Best uptime record of any major L2. Underlying chain never at risk.
5	◎ SolanaPoH + Tower BFT	~400ms i Shred streaming (processed level). Transaction visible as the block builds — no validator vote yet. Functionally equivalent to a preconfirmation. Alpenglow upgrade (not yet deployed) targets 150ms hard finality.	~1–2 sec Optimistic confirm · ≥⅔ stake	~12.8 sec 32-vote lockout · Tower BFT	BFT	~99.6% 7 full network halts 2021–2024 (total ~60h downtime). 99.9%+ uptime in 2024–2025. Each halt required off-chain validator coordination.
6	ZK zkSync EraL2 ZK Rollup · Boojum prover	~1 sec i Sequencer soft confirmation (Atlas upgrade, Oct 2025). Batch formation ~mins; ZK proof gen ~1hr; then L1 verification. No 7-day challenge window — once proof verifies on Ethereum, finality is cryptographic.	~1 sec Sequencer confirm · Matter Labs	~1–24 hrs ZK proof gen + L1 verify · No challenge window	ZK / Economic	~99.9% Generally stable. Proof system manually paused briefly once for a vulnerability. No major sequencer outages on record.
7	BNB BNB ChainProof of Staked Authority	~1.875 sec i Full block. Post-Maxwell upgrade (June 2025): 0.75s block time, 1.875s finality. Soft and hard finality coincide — deterministic on confirmation.	~1.875 sec	~1.875 sec	Deterministic	~99.9% Few outages. Oct 2022: ~1h halt after $586M bridge exploit triggered emergency shutdown. Otherwise highly stable.
8	▲ AvalancheSnowman (C-Chain)	~2 sec i Full block via Snowman BFT sampling. Repeated random validator sampling converges to deterministic finality — soft and hard finality coincide.	~2 sec	~2 sec	Deterministic	~99.8% Feb 2024: ~5h outage during Durango upgrade. Mar 2023: brief X/C-chain outage from a network bug. Stable otherwise.
9	TRX TRONDelegated PoS	~3 sec i Full block via DPoS with 27 super representatives. Highly centralized — finality speed comes at cost of decentralization. Soft and hard finality coincide.	~3 sec	~3 sec	Deterministic	~99.9% No widely documented consensus halts. Centralization (27 validators) is the structural risk, not historical downtime.
10	XRP XRP LedgerRPCA (federated)	~3–5 sec i Full ledger close via trusted validator lists (UNLs). Federated consensus — not open permissionless stake. No slashing. Soft and hard finality coincide.	~3–5 sec	~3–5 sec	Deterministic	~99.9% Rare disruptions. Purpose-built for continuous payment availability. No major halts on record.
11	XLM StellarSCP (federated)	~5 sec i Full ledger close via Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA). Similar trust model to XRP — relies on trusted node lists rather than open stake. No slashing.	~5 sec	~5 sec	Deterministic	~99.9% Stable. Minor degradation events on record. Designed for payment rail reliability.
12	⚛ Cosmos HubTendermint / CometBFT	~6 sec i Full block via classical BFT. ≥⅔ validators must commit before a block is added — once committed, it is final by definition. No gap between soft and hard finality.	~6 sec	~6 sec	Deterministic	~99.9% Hub itself stable. Individual Cosmos appchains have had halts (BFT chains halt rather than fork when validator quorum fails).
13	● PolkadotGRANDPA + BABE	~6 sec i Block inclusion. GRANDPA provides provable finality on the relay chain. Parachains inherit relay chain finality. Hard finality can take up to 60 sec under full security guarantees.	~6 sec	12–60 sec	Deterministic	~99.9% Relay chain stable. Some individual parachain halts. GRANDPA can stall if validator quorum is unavailable.
14	Ξ EthereumPoS + Casper FFG	~12 sec i Block inclusion via PoS. Single-slot finality (SSF) on research roadmap. Currently the strongest hard finality guarantee of any chain — ≥⅓ of all staked ETH (~$30B+) required to break.	~12 sec 1 block	~13 min 2 epochs · Casper FFG	Economic	100% Zero consensus downtime since genesis (July 2015). 18 major upgrades — including the Merge — completed without interruption. Industry benchmark.
15	₳ CardanoOuroboros (PoS)	~20 sec i Block inclusion. No preconfirmation mechanism. No slashing by deliberate design. Settlement confidence grows probabilistically; checkpointed at ~2 min.	~20 sec 1 block	~2 min Checkpointed	Probabilistic	~100% Jan 2023: ~60% of nodes briefly disconnected and auto-restarted within minutes. No network halt or manual restart needed. No consensus failures.
16	₿ BitcoinProof of Work	~10 min i First block inclusion. No preconfirmation mechanism. 6 confirmations (~60 min) is industry standard for high-value settlement. Absolute finality is never reached — reversal probability decays exponentially with each block.	~60 min 6 confirmations	Never Probabilistic only	Probabilistic	100% Zero consensus failures in 16-year history. One accidental fork in 2013 (resolved in hours) remains the only notable incident.