Polygon successfully completed a Hard Fork to fix the latency issue of transaction finality.

Polygon (MATIC), one of the major Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum, completed a critical Hard Fork on September 10, successfully fixing a technical error that caused transaction finality latency. Previously, the Polygon PoS network experienced a 10–15 minute latency during the recording of “milestone” checkpoints, affecting transaction confirmation speed and validator synchronization.

Hard Fork Details and Version Updates

The Polygon Foundation has confirmed that the Hard Fork was officially implemented at 3 PM UTC, deploying Bor v2.2.11-beta2 (block production layer) and Heimdall v0.3.1 (consensus and validation coordination layer) updates.

The Polygon team stated in the announcement that checkpoint and consensus finalization have been fully restored, and both transaction and state synchronization are operating normally, with ongoing monitoring of network stability.

Impact of Finality Latency

Polygon refers to its native fast finality as “milestone,” representing an irreversible state after the L2 network reaches consensus. Although the finality of Ethereum's mainnet checkpoints is unaffected, the local milestone has a latency of 10–15 minutes, resulting in slower validator synchronization and extended transaction confirmation times.

During the finality latency period, POL (Polygon native token) once dropped by 4%, and then rebounded after the hard fork was completed.

Technical Background and Historical Upgrades

Earlier this year, Polygon launched the Heimdall v2 upgrade, aimed at enhancing stability and validator coordination while clearing up early technical debt. This upgrade has been referred to as the “most complex” Hard Fork since 2020. However, a few weeks later, the network experienced a finality interruption lasting up to an hour, highlighting the importance and challenges of such upgrades for network stability.

The Importance of Finality

In blockchain, finality refers to the fact that once a transaction is confirmed by validators, it is irreversible. Although blocks are generated every few seconds, there is still a slight risk of reorganization or rollback before finality is achieved. For high-frequency trading and DeFi applications, finality latency may affect user experience and the safety of funds.

Conclusion

The successful completion of this Hard Fork by Polygon not only resolved the latency issue of transaction finality but also ensured the stability of its PoS network. As the importance of Layer 2 solutions in the Ethereum ecosystem continues to rise, Polygon's ongoing optimization and upgrades will play a key role in future competition. For more real-time technology and market analysis, please follow the official Gate platform.