beefy_getFinalizedHead

Returns the block hash of the latest BEEFY-finalized block on Bifrost. BEEFY (Bridge Efficiency Enabling Finality Yielder) provides additional finality proofs optimized for light clients and bridges.

Use Cases

• Cross-chain bridges - Verify finality proofs for omnichain liquid staking (vDOT, vKSM, vGLMR, vMOVR, vASTR), cross-chain vToken governance, and DOT/ETH liquidity bridging
• Light clients - Efficient finality verification without full GRANDPA proofs
• Trustless bridges - Generate compact finality proofs for external chains

Parameters

This method takes no parameters.

Returns

Field	Type	Description
result	Hash	Block hash of the latest BEEFY-finalized block

Code Examples

cURL

curl https://api-bifrost-polkadot.n.dwellir.com/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "beefy_getFinalizedHead",
    "params": [],
    "id": 1
  }'

JavaScript

import { ApiPromise, WsProvider } from '@polkadot/api';

const provider = new WsProvider('wss://api-bifrost-polkadot.n.dwellir.com/YOUR_API_KEY');
const api = await ApiPromise.create({ provider });

// Get BEEFY finalized head
const beefyHead = await api.rpc.beefy.getFinalizedHead();
console.log('BEEFY finalized:', beefyHead.toHex());

// Compare with GRANDPA finalized
const grandpaHead = await api.rpc.chain.getFinalizedHead();
console.log('GRANDPA finalized:', grandpaHead.toHex());

await api.disconnect();

Python

import requests

url = 'https://api-bifrost-polkadot.n.dwellir.com/YOUR_API_KEY'
payload = {
    'jsonrpc': '2.0',
    'method': 'beefy_getFinalizedHead',
    'params': [],
    'id': 1
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload)
result = response.json()

if 'result' in result:
    print(f"BEEFY finalized: {result['result']}")
else:
    print(f"Error: {result.get('error')}")

BEEFY vs GRANDPA Finality

Aspect	GRANDPA	BEEFY
Purpose	Primary finality	Bridge-optimized finality
Proof size	Larger (full validator set)	Compact (aggregated signatures)
Latency	Immediate	Slightly delayed
Use case	On-chain finality	Cross-chain bridges

Availability

BEEFY is enabled on relay chains and some parachains. If BEEFY is not enabled, this method will return an error.

Related Methods

• chain_getFinalizedHead - GRANDPA finalized head
• grandpa_roundState - GRANDPA consensus state
• chain_subscribeFinalizedHeads - Subscribe to finalized blocks