10‑Second Fast Finality Layer on Soneium? By Astar Network, AltLayer & EigenLayer

Every Web3 builder knows the pain: you send a transaction on an Optimistic rollup like Soneium and then… you wait. For 15 minutes, your user stares at a spinner while Ethereum’s fraud‑proof window ticks down. That “wait” isn’t just a UI annoyance, it throttles real‑time trading, gaming, and cross‑chain interactions in a world craving instant feedback.

Yet today, thanks to a three‑way collaboration between Astar, AltLayer and EigenLayer, that 15 minute drag can collapse into a sub‑10 second heartbeat. Imagine starting a game match or closing a DeFi position and seeing “Finalized” almost before you blink, that’s the promise of the new Fast Finality Layer.

MACH Meets AVS

At the core of this breakthrough is AltLayer’s MACH, which pushes rollup verification off‑chain to a fleet of validators. As soon as the sequencer emits a new state root, MACH nodes grab the calldata, replay every transaction in parallel, and quickly broadcast their signature. When enough signatures converge, a quorum that you can actually watch in your logs, the state is irrevocably locked in.

But speed alone isn’t enough. That’s where EigenLayer’s AVS (Actively Validated Service) comes in, knitting economic security to the process. ETH validators, and now ASTR holders, can “restake” their tokens to back MACH’s finality guarantees. If any node misbehaves, slashing penalties hit both ETH and ASTR pools, making the cost of attack astronomically high.

Astar x AltLayer x EigenLayer: Fast Finality for Soneium 💿

Astar is collaborating with @alt_layer & @eigenlayer to bring fast finality to @soneium — transforming it into a high-performance rollup, secured by ASTR & ETH.

A deeper step into Ethereum’s modular future. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/GaSkAG3LFk
— Astar Network (@AstarNetwork) April 16, 2025

Sealing the Deal: Dual‑Token Security

By combining MACH’s off‑chain consensus with AVS’s restaked collateral, we get a safety net that’s both rapid and robust. In practice, here’s how a transaction finalizes:

Block Creation (≈2 s): Sequencer publishes a state root.
Replay & Sign (≈3–4 s): MACH nodes validate by replaying state off‑chain.
Signature Collection (≈3 s): Signatures flood in until the quorum is met.
Finality Broadcast (≈0.5 s): The network is notified, your tx is immutable.

Total time? Under 10 seconds, every time. And because validators have their ETH and ASTR on the line, those 10 seconds are backed by serious economic skin in the game.

Directions

Restaking is as simple as connecting your wallet at app.eigenlayer.xyz, picking ASTR and choosing a trusted operator (think AltLayer, stakefish, Oh Ottie!, etc.). Then enable the MACH plugin on your Soneium node, point it to the AVS endpoint and watch your transactions finalize almost instantly.

By staking your ASTR alongside ETH, you’re not only earning yield, you’re underwriting the UX revolution that makes instant, cross‑chain dApps possible. Once you’ve felt 8 second finality in your own testnet setup, you’ll never want to go back to waiting for fraud proofs.

If you have any thoughts or feedback that you would like to share, you can write to team@etherworld.co or @ether_world