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Finality

consensus
blockchain

Finality is the point at which a transaction is considered irreversible or economically impractical to revert.

1
concept

Finality reflects confidence that a transaction will not be reversed. In proof-of-work chains, finality is probabilistic and increases with confirmations; in BFT-style proof-of-stake systems, finality may be explicit once validators sign a checkpoint.

2
factors

Factors include network hash rate or validator stake, reorg history, bridge dependencies, finality rules, and attacker costs. Economic finality is reached when the cost and risk of reversal exceed the potential gain.

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All terms and definitions may update as the Cryptionary improves.