# Consensus

[Open the live dashboard in TraceFast →](https://tracefast.xyz/)

![Consensus widget — missed slots, finality and recent reorgs](/screenshots/consensus.png)

## What it shows

The health of Ethereum's [consensus layer](https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/) in three numbers, next to [Top Block Builders](/dashboard/block-builders):

* **Missed slots 24h** — slots of the last 24 hours in which no block was proposed, out of all slots of that period. A slot is counted once it is final, so the count trails the head a little. The number links to the full list on [Validators](/dashboard/validators#missed-slots).
* **Finality** — how many slots lie between the chain head and the last finalized checkpoint, and the same distance in epochs.
* **Reorgs 24h** — reorganizations of the chain head seen in the last 24 hours.

Below them, **Recent reorgs** lists the latest five with their slot, depth and age. Each one links to its execution block once the slot is final; before that the row says *block not final yet*.

## How to read it

* **Missed slots are normal in small numbers.** A few dozen of roughly 7,200 daily slots go empty on an ordinary day — a validator was offline or late. A sharp rise across many validators points at a client bug or a network problem rather than at one operator.
* **Finality of about two epochs is the healthy state.** Ethereum finalizes a checkpoint roughly every two epochs (~13 minutes). A finality lag that keeps growing means the network is not reaching the vote it needs, and it deserves attention.
* **A reorg of depth 1 is routine.** The head block was replaced by a competing one, usually because it arrived late. Deeper reorgs are rare.
* **Honest gaps.** When no new head has been observed for a while, the widget says so above the numbers. When the reorg listener was down for part of the day, the count reads `≥ N`, because a reorg in that gap would not have been counted.

## Data & update cadence

Covers the last 24 hours and refreshes about once a minute, and immediately when a reorg is observed. If a refresh fails, the widget keeps the previous reading for one more minute and says so.

## Related pages

* [Validators](/dashboard/validators) — missed slots per epoch, the assigned validators and their pages
* [Top Block Builders](/dashboard/block-builders) — who built the blocks that were proposed
* [Block KPIs](/dashboard/block-kpis) — the latest block on the execution side