As a seasoned researcher who has witnessed the evolution of blockchain technology since its inception, I am genuinely excited about the proposed EIP-7781 by Ben Adams. My professional journey has been marked by the relentless pursuit of scalability solutions that can address the pressing challenges faced by Ethereum and other blockchains.


On October 5, 2024, a fresh Ethereum update, known as EIP-7781, was proposed. This proposal seeks to shorten the time between each Ethereum block from 12 seconds to just 8 seconds.

The update proposed by Ben Adams, a co-founder of Illyriad Games, might not only boost the data storage but also possibly elevate the network’s data transfer speed by approximately 50%.

A Major Step for Ethereum’s Future

On October 6th, a developer going by the name of Cygaar on platform X endorsed EIP-7781 as a significant leap forward in enhancing Ethereum’s L1 performance. They advocated for its integration as a potential solution to alleviate network congestion and boost data capabilities.

EIP-7781 aims to increase the storage ability of “blobs,” a short-term data container, which in turn lowers transaction costs within Layer-2 (L2) networks.

The proposed changes aim to improve mainnet throughput while evenly distributing bandwidth usage. Some hope this will ultimately reduce peak demands without increasing the number of blocks or blobs to ensure smoother processing and lower latency, particularly for L2s.

As a crypto investor, I’ve taken notice of the widespread backing for this improvement proposal. In the GitHub conversation, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake pointed out that this plan aligns with the broader scaling objectives envisioned by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, and also resonates with several other scaling organizations.

Drake pointed out that cutting down on block times could potentially boost the efficiency of platforms similar to Uniswap v3, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), by approximately 22%. This could translate to a yearly savings of around $100 million in CEX-DEX arbitrage costs.

Moreover, it’s stated that the update may significantly improve the user experience for Ethereum smart contracts by decreasing confirmation times by about a third. Furthermore, this upgrade is expected to spread out peak load times over a greater number of time intervals, thus alleviating pressure during times of high usage.

Potential Concerns for Solo Stakers

Simultaneously, certain developers express apprehension regarding the plan’s implications for independent stakers. They argue that a reduction in block time might require quicker processing and more robust hardware, which in turn would escalate bandwidth and computational requirements. This could potentially present difficulties for individual stakers relying on consumer-level hardware.

In response to Cygaar’s post, I, as an analyst, found Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinnehaim Ventures, expressing that the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is “reasonable.” However, he emphasized the importance of maintaining a consistent gas limit for every block to ensure feasibility for most users.

Furthermore, the professor of Information Science cautioned that heightened requirements might pose a challenge to Ethereum’s long-term aim of remaining decentralized, as it could become more difficult for ordinary users to function as validators.

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2024-10-07 21:52