According to Cointelegraph, a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-7781) introduced by Illyriad Games co-founder Ben Adams on October 5 aims to reduce block times on the Ethereum network by 33% and increase data capacity, thereby boosting overall throughput by 50%. The proposal seeks to cut block times from 12 seconds to eight seconds, enhance the latency of based rollups, and increase the capacity of blobs, which are temporary data structures designed to reduce layer-2 network fees.
In an October 6 post to X, pseudonymous developer Cygaar described EIP-7781 as a significant step toward improving Ethereum's base layer, noting that much of the developer focus has been on Ethereum L2 networks as scaling solutions. The proposal also aims to distribute bandwidth usage over time, lowering peak bandwidth requirements without increasing individual block or blob counts.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake expressed his support for EIP-7781 on GitHub, stating that the proposal aligns with broader goals set by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and other Ethereum scaling organizations. Drake highlighted that reducing block times could make decentralized exchanges like Uniswap v3 more efficient and save approximately $100 million in CEX-DEX arbitrage annually, ultimately leading to better execution for users. He also noted that the proposal would improve the user experience of Ethereum smart contracts by reducing confirmation times by 33% and smoothing out peak load across more slots.
However, some developers have raised concerns that shorter block times could pose risks to solo stakers. The increased execution state growth, which refers to the growing amount of data on the blockchain, would require more powerful hardware and bandwidth to propagate the blockchain's state in less time. In an October 6 post to X, Cinnehaim Ventures partner Adam Cochran commented that the new EIP seemed reasonable for solo stakers as long as the gas limit per block remained unchanged. Cochran emphasized the need for tests on I/O hardware and staker return ping times to ensure that home stakers are not adversely affected.
The increased requirements for stakers could potentially impact Ethereum's long-term decentralization efforts. This proposal comes shortly after Vitalik Buterin discussed reducing the minimum amount required to become a validator on the Ethereum network from 36 Ether (ETH) to 16 or 24 ETH to enhance network security and decentralization.
Alex
