Ethereum Proposal EIP-7781 Seeks to Reduce Block Times to 8 Seconds

By reducing the block time to 8 seconds, the EIP-7781 proposal will increase the latency of based rollups while boosting the capacity of blobs.

Key Notes

EIP-7781 proposes reducing Ethereum block times from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, aiming to boost throughput by 50%.The proposal would improve mainnet performance, reduce peak loads, and spread bandwidth usage over time.Concerns have been raised about the impact on solo stakers, as shorter block times may require more powerful hardware.

As per the recent claim by developers, a new Ethereum proposal EIP-7781 seeks to reduce the block times from 12 seconds to 8 seconds i.e. a 33% drop, which will boost the overall throughput by 50%.

Last Saturday, October 5, Illyriad Games co-founder Ben Adams introduced this EIP-7781 proposal with the goal of reducing the block times on the Ethereum mainnet. Block time represents the average time required by validators to verify the transactions and solve the hash.

By reducing the block time from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, the EIP-7781 proposal will increase the latency of based rollups while boosting the capacity of blobs, which helps in reducing Layer-2 network fees.

In an Oct. 6 post on X, pseudonymous developer Cygaar described EIP-7781 as the “first major” step toward enhancing Ethereum’s base layer, noting that much of the development effort is currently shifting towards Ethereum Layer 2 networks for scaling solutions.

There's a new EIP to increase Ethereum's throughput by 50%.

– 12 second block times -> 8 seconds

– 6 data blobs per block -> 9 blobs per block

– DEXes become around 1.22x more efficient

If approved, this would be a huge first step in improving Ethereum L1's performance. pic.twitter.com/MkX5gbiBFR

— cygaar (@0xCygaar) October 6, 2024

Apart from increasing the mainnet throughput, the proposal will distribute the bandwidth usage over time, thereby decreasing the bandwidth requirements and increasing individual block and blob counts. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake also gave his approval for the EIP-7781 proposal on GitHub.

He added that the proposal aligns with some of the broader goals coming from Ethereum scaling organizations as well as co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Drake also added that reducing the block times to 8 seconds would also see decentralized exchanges (DEXs) such as Uniswap v3 be  “1.22x more efficient” while saving “roughly $100M in CEX-DEX arbitrage per year and ultimately leading to better execution for users.”

Ethereum Proposal and Smart Contracts

The Ethereum EIP-7781 proposal will improve the user experience of Ethereum smart contracts and also reduce the confirmation times by an additional 33% while reducing the “peak load” across slots. However, several developers raised concerns that reducing the block time would pose risks to solo stakers.

Shorter block times could lead to execution state growth — an increase in blockchain data — which demands more powerful hardware and higher bandwidth to process and transmit the blockchain’s state more quickly.

In another post on Monday, October 6, Cinnehaim Ventures partner Adam Cochran said that this EIP seems “reasonable” with its imposition on solo stakers along with the gas limit per block staying unchanged.

“Would want to see some tests on I/O hardware and staker return ping times to make sure it doesn’t cut off some home stakers but, seems like it should be within range for most,” added Cochran.

However, higher demands on stakers could challenge Ethereum’s long-term goal of maintaining decentralization.

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