When Friction Helps: Transaction Confirmation Improves Decision Quality in Blockchain Interactions

TL;DR

This study reveals that transaction confirmation in blockchain interactions, while often seen as usability friction, actually enhances decision quality by serving as a cognitive checkpoint, despite reducing user convenience.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that transaction confirmation improves decision accuracy in blockchain tasks, challenging the view of confirmation as merely usability friction.

Findings

Confirmation mode led to higher win rates and better move quality.

Participants preferred frictionless confirmation but performed worse without confirmation.

Confirmation enables self-correction before submission.

Abstract

In blockchain applications, transaction confirmation is often treated as usability friction to be minimized or removed. However, confirmation also marks the boundary between deliberation and irreversible commitment, suggesting it may play a functional role in human decision-making. To investigate this tension, we conducted an experiment using a blockchain-based Connect Four game with two interaction modes differing only in authorization flow: manual wallet confirmation (Confirmation Mode) versus auto-authorized delegation (Frictionless Mode). Although participants preferred Frictionless Mode and perceived better performance (N=109), objective performance was worse without confirmation in a counterbalanced deployment (Wave 2: win rate -11.8%, p=0.044; move quality -0.051, p=0.022). Analysis of canceled submissions suggests confirmation can enable pre-submission self-correction (N=66, p=0.005). These findings suggest that transaction confirmation can function as a cognitively meaningful checkpoint rather than mere usability friction, highlighting a trade-off between interaction smoothness and decision quality in irreversible blockchain interactions.