Doubling the Pace of Ethereum
Ethereum’s confirmation times could soon get a serious upgrade. A new proposal from core developer Barnabé Monnot—formally known as EIP-7782—calls for halving the network’s current 12-second slot time to just 6 seconds. This change would double the block output rate and is being considered for the upcoming Glamsterdam update, scheduled for late 2026.
The proposed move is all about boosting user experience and increasing Ethereum’s economic efficiency as a blockchain settlement layer.
That “service price” refers to the value Ethereum captures as a confirmation network—essentially, how much it can earn by being faster and more reliable.
Source: Ethereum.org
Real-Time Gains for Users and DeFi
The benefits of the proposal are significant across the Ethereum ecosystem. According to Monnot and the staking team at Everstake, faster slot times mean that transactions would be included and confirmed more quickly, giving users a more responsive and fluid experience on everything from wallets to DApps to layer-2 rollups.
This change would make wallets show up-to-the-minute data, reduce delays in onchain updates, and even reduce the chances of transaction censorship, since more blocks per minute means more opportunities for a transaction to get through.
For DeFi, the impact could be even more powerful. Faster slot times would allow price feeds and trading pairs on decentralized exchanges to update more frequently, limiting the edge of arbitrage traders who exploit stale pricing. That would result in lower slippage, better pricing, and tighter spreads.
Engineering Trade-Offs and Infrastructure Stress
Still, halving slot times isn’t all upside. The proposal acknowledges that network validators, especially those with slower internet connections or less optimized setups, may struggle with tighter deadlines. Compressing subslot timings means there's less margin for error in critical validator duties.
According to EIP-7782, several key subslot timings would change:
- Block proposal time would drop from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
- Attestation time would shrink from 4 seconds to 1.5 seconds
- Aggregation time would also be reduced from 4 seconds to 1.5 seconds
That adds up to a 6-second total cut, forcing validators to react and communicate nearly twice as fast.
The proposal also raises concerns over increased bandwidth demand and network congestion, especially during peak usage periods. Any attempt to implement this change would require extensive stress testing to ensure network stability and prevent smart contract breakage.
Laying the Groundwork for Glamsterdam
The Glamsterdam hard fork, expected in 2026, is shaping up to be a major efficiency overhaul for Ethereum. It will focus on gas optimizations, blob supply expansion, and now, potentially, a radical shift in block timing. Monnot believes Ethereum will be well-prepared for this by then, with blocks expected to be 3x larger in gas and 8x richer in data blobs.
If EIP-7782 is implemented, it could represent one of the most significant protocol upgrades since The Merge, positioning Ethereum to compete more aggressively with high-speed chains and meet the demands of a global user base hungry for speed and scalability.
