Economic Finality

Economic finality is a state where the cost of reversing a transaction is made so high that it becomes economically irrational for any attacker to attempt it. Even if a protocol does not provide absolute cryptographic finality, it can achieve economic finality by requiring validators to stake significant assets that are subject to slashing.

If an attacker attempts to revert a transaction, they would lose their entire stake, making the attack financially disastrous. This form of finality is particularly important in DeFi, where smart contracts rely on the integrity of the underlying chain to manage collateral and execute trades.

It bridges the gap between purely mathematical security and the real-world financial incentives that govern human behavior in markets.