Ethereum is not instant, but collateral could make it feel that way

According to CryptoSlate, making Ethereum payments feel instant requires an operator to promise funds are present before the network finishes settling. Puffer, a company building transaction infrastructure for Ethereum, announced that Google Cloud would operate a gateway to receive transactions and guarantee results. Both the UniFi network and Puffer Preconf service were running in a testing environment as of September 23, according to CEO Amir Forouzani. Puffer plans to back early transaction promises with collateral to incentivize correct behavior, using a penalty called slashing where a failed preconfirmation would cost the gateway 1 ETH. While Forouzani stated Puffer's transaction times were configured at 50 milliseconds, performance with real customer money remains to be established. Ethereum's base layer relies on 12-second block slots and longer finality times, while rollups process transactions separately before settling. Puffer's system still needs to demonstrate how compensation would be calculated and paid if a transaction fails, as well as when the stated penalty would become enforceable.