TLDR
- Polygon’s PoS network faces a temporary finality delay, impacting transaction confirmation times for 10–15 minutes.
- The bug affecting Bor and Erigon nodes disrupted RPC services, causing issues for DeFi apps and validators.
- Polygon confirms a patch is being rolled out to resolve the delay, ensuring blocks continue to be produced.
- Finality delay is caused by a milestone issue in Heimdall, which impacts checkpoints and Ethereum integration.
Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain is currently experiencing a temporary delay in transaction finality, causing transactions to take 10–15 minutes longer than usual to be considered irreversible. Although block production continues uninterrupted, the finality issue has caused some disruptions for decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and operators who rely on higher assurance before settling trades and crediting deposits.
According to the Polygon Foundation, the finality delay is due to a milestone issue affecting its consensus mechanism. The team confirmed that the issue has been identified, and a fix is being rolled out to validators and service providers. While the situation is ongoing, Polygon assures the community that the blockchain is still running smoothly, and blocks continue to be produced.
What is Consensus Finality and Why Does it Matter?
Consensus finality refers to the point at which a transaction is considered irreversible, as its state has been securely checkpointed and accepted by the network’s consensus mechanism. Until this point, there is a small risk of the blockchain undergoing a reorganization or rollback, which could impact transaction settlements.
In this case, while Polygon’s PoS blockchain continues to produce blocks, the finality process has been delayed, causing a lag before transactions are officially confirmed. The issue has led to some disruptions for DeFi applications and exchanges, which often wait for finality before crediting deposits or settling trades.
For instance, applications that require high assurance on transaction finality have had to delay their operations until the issue is fully resolved. This delay can be a source of frustration for users relying on fast and secure transaction confirmations, especially during high-volume trading periods.
The Bug Affecting Polygon’s PoS Network
The source of the delay was traced to a bug affecting Polygon’s Bor and Erigon nodes, critical components of the network. Bor is responsible for producing and organizing new blocks of transactions, while Erigon helps blockchain infrastructure providers retrieve and store blockchain data efficiently.
This issue led to disruptions in Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services, causing some apps built on the Polygon network to experience access problems. Validators were required to revert to the last finalized block and resynchronize their nodes. The Polygon team has confirmed that restarting the affected nodes has resolved the issue for some participants. Engineers are working closely with infrastructure providers to accelerate the debugging process and restore full functionality.
Despite the challenges, Polygon assured users that the core chain operations remain unaffected, with the blockchain continuing to produce new blocks. The team has already rolled out a fix to address the issue, which is expected to resolve the delay in finality.
Ongoing Efforts to Stabilize the Network
Polygon has been actively working to address the situation by collaborating with validators and service providers. The network’s ongoing housekeeping efforts, including the Heimdall upgrade, have focused on improving stability and finality times. The Heimdall v2 upgrade, aimed at reducing finality to five seconds, was implemented earlier this year. However, the recent issues highlight the complexity of maintaining such a fast and secure network.
In response to the bug, Polygon engineers have worked to resolve the node synchronization problem, and they continue to monitor the network closely. The team reassured users that the delay is temporary and that full recovery is expected soon.
