Introduction:

Ethereum’s recent transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) has changed how transactions are processed on the network. In PoS Ethereum, validators (not miners) are responsible for confirming transactions and creating new blocks.
This article will walk you through the end-to-end journey of a transaction on Ethereum PoS: from the moment you craft and sign it in your wallet, all the way to its final confirmation on the blockchain.
We’ll cover seven key stages of this lifecycle, using simple language and analogies to make the process clear. By the end, you’ll understand how an Ethereum transaction travels through the network in a PoS system, and what happens at each step.

1. Transaction Creation in a Wallet

Every Ethereum transaction begins in a user’s wallet (for example, MetaMask or another Ethereum wallet app). You, as the user, decide to send some ETH or interact with a smart contract, and you fill in the details (recipient address, amount, etc.).
When you hit "send," the wallet creates the transaction and signs it with your private key, which is like stamping a wax seal on a letter to prove it’s really from you. At this stage you also set a gas fee which is essentially a tip for the validators, which incentivizes them to include your transaction in a block.
Once the transaction is formed and signed, it’s given a unique identifier called a transaction hash (or txhash). This hash is like a tracking number or receipt for your transaction, and you can use it to look up the transaction’s status and details on block explorers like Etherscan.
In summary, the transaction is now ready to enter the Ethereum network, carrying your instructions (and the attached fee) securely sealed by your signature.

2. Transaction Propagation to the Network

After creation, your wallet broadcasts the signed transaction to the Ethereum network. This happens through Ethereum’s peer-to-peer (P2P) gossip system.
Imagine shouting a message to a crowd, and then each person repeats it to others. The transaction is quickly propagated across many Ethereum nodes (computers running Ethereum software).
Each node that hears about the new transaction will check its basic validity and then store it in a temporary holding area called the mempool (short for memory pool).
The mempool is like a waiting room for transactions that have been announced but not yet included in a block. At this point, your transaction is pending that is it’s out on the network, known to Ethereum nodes, and sitting in line in the mempool along with other pending transactions.

3. Mempool Handling by Validators

Once in the mempool, your transaction waits to be picked up by a validator. Validators are constantly scanning the mempool for transactions to include in the next block.
They will only consider valid transactions, for example, they check that you actually have enough ETH to cover the transaction and fees, and that the transaction’s signature is correct.
If the transaction fails these checks, it stays in limbo or gets dropped. Assuming it’s valid, it sits in the mempool until a validator decides to include it when creating a block. Here, transaction fees play an important role in the waiting time.
Just like a postal service might prioritize express mail, validators give preference to transactions offering higher gas fees (tips) because it means more reward for them.
If the network is busy, transactions with low fees might stay pending longer while high-fee transactions get picked first. In practice, this means if you set a very low gas fee on a crowded network, your transaction could linger in the mempool for a while.
But eventually, when a validator is ready to make a new block, your transaction will be among those considered for inclusion, especially if its fee is competitive.

4. Block Proposal by a Selected Validator

Ethereum operates on fixed intervals called slots (each lasting ~12 seconds). In each slot, one validator is randomly chosen (using a lottery-like algorithm) to be the block proposer, this lucky validator gets the right to create the next block.
When it’s their turn, the validator node will gather a batch of pending transactions from its local mempool to include in the block.
Typically, the validator selects transactions that offer the highest fees first (to maximize their earnings), while still fitting within the block’s gas limit.
They bundle these transactions into a new block, sort of like filling a package with all the letters and parcels (transactions) to be delivered at that time.
The validator then proposes this block by broadcasting it out to the network. In summary, at this stage a new block containing your transaction (if it was picked) is created by the selected validator and sent out for the rest of the network to review.

5. Attestation by Other Validators

Simplified illustration of three consecutive slots in Ethereum PoS. In each slot, one validator proposes a block (blue square) and a committee of other validators votes (attests) on it (dotted lines).
Once a block is proposed, it’s not yet official until other validators give their approval. For each slot, Ethereum selects a committee of validators (at least 128 of them, chosen pseudo-randomly) to verify and vote on the new block.
These validators act as attesters that is their job is to double-check the block and the transactions in it. They independently validate the block’s contents (for example, re-executing the transactions to ensure that the proposer didn’t include any invalid transaction).
If everything looks correct, each attester broadcasts an attestation, which is essentially a vote saying “I saw this block and I think it’s valid.” In Ethereum’s PoS, most of the time validators are attesters, voting on proposed blocks. These attestation votes are collected and recorded in the Beacon Chain (the core PoS chain), and they help the network come to agreement on the block. When a supermajority of validators in the committee (usually two-thirds or more) attests to the block, it is accepted as the legitimate block for that slot. At this point, the block containing your transaction is added to the blockchain branch that everyone agrees on, meaning your transaction is included in the canonical chain.
This inclusion happens just seconds after the block was proposed, but it is still subject to further confirmation in the next stage (similar to a package being delivered but awaiting a final “delivery confirmed” stamp).

6. Finalization of the Block
In Ethereum PoS, blocks go through an extra step called finalization. Finalization is like the blockchain’s way of cementing the fact that a block (and all the transactions in it) is definitely here to stay.
After a block is proposed and attested to in its slot, the network waits for a couple of epochs (each epoch is 32 slots, about 6.4 minutes) to gather more votes across the whole validator set and reach a strong consensus. In simple terms, if more than two-thirds of the total validators agree on the state of the chain up through two consecutive epoch checkpoints, the block is finalized. This typically takes on the order of 2 epochs (roughly 13–15 minutes) from the time the block was added. Once finalized, the block containing your transaction becomes a permanent part of Ethereum. It would be extremely difficult to reverse (doing so would require a malicious actor to sacrifice a huge amount of staked ETH, which is practically infeasible).
In other words, finalization is the network’s ironclad confirmation. From a user perspective, by the time finality is reached, you can consider the transaction irrevocably settled. (In fact, even before formal finalization, the probability of a block being reorganized is very low once a few more blocks have been built on top of it, but finalization makes it a certainty.

7. Confirmation and Visibility on Block Explorers

Once your transaction is included in a block, you’ll be able to see it on public block explorers like Etherscan almost immediately. The transaction entry will show details like the block number, timestamp, sender, receiver, amount, and so on. Initially, the explorer might mark the transaction with something like “1 block confirmation,” meaning it’s in the latest block. The status will also show as “Success” (assuming it wasn’t reverted), indicating that the transaction was executed and included successfully.
As new blocks get added on top of that block, the confirmation count increases (2 confirmations, 3 confirmations, and so forth), which is a sign that the network is building on your transaction and not ignoring it. Many wallets or exchanges consider a transaction fully confirmed after a certain number of these confirmations. For example, an exchange like Binance might wait for 12 block confirmations before treating an incoming deposit as final. In the PoS era, a transaction is truly final when the block is finalized (as explained in the previous stage), but you don’t necessarily need to wait 15 minutes in normal daily use because even a few confirmations provide strong confidence. Block explorers will also reflect when a block (and thus your transaction) has been finalized, often by noting “Finalized” or simply by the passage of time and high confirmation count.
At this point, you (and anyone else) can see the transaction permanently recorded on Ethereum’s ledger. Your wallet balance will have updated accordingly, and the journey that began with you hitting “send” in your wallet has reached its destination with a confirmed, final transaction on the blockchain.

Conclusion

In this article, we followed an Ethereum transaction’s lifecycle under Proof-of-Stake, from creation to final confirmation. We saw how a transaction is created and signed in a wallet (like putting a letter into the postal system), then broadcast to the network and held in the mempool (the waiting line).
A validator picked it up and proposed a new block (like a mail truck gathering letters for delivery), other validators attested to the block’s validity (the peers double-checking and approving the delivery), and finally the transaction became sealed into the blockchain with finality (akin to the delivery being irreversible and officially recorded). Throughout this journey, tools like Etherscan allow you to watch your transaction’s status: from pending, to confirmed in a block, to finalized and permanent. For new developers and enthusiasts, understanding this flow demystifies what happens after you click “send” in your crypto wallet. It highlights the roles of validators in a PoS system and shows the robust process that guarantees your transaction becomes a trustworthy part of Ethereum’s history.