The community surrounding Ethereum is currently assessing
a new proposal aimed at enhancing the network’s efficiency. The Ethereum
Improvement Proposal (EIP) 7781 suggests reducing the slot time, allowing for quicker transaction processing.
On October 5, Ben Adams, co-founder of Illyriad Games, proposed to decrease Ethereum’s slot time from 12 seconds to
8 seconds. This adjustment could potentially increase transaction throughput by approximately 33%.
This modification would lead to a more balanced distribution of bandwidth usage, alleviating peak demand without
necessitating an increase in data volume.
According to Adams, this adjustment has effects similar to raising the maximum allowed size of transactions from 6
to 8 data units, or increasing the gas limit from 30 million to 40 million, all while keeping peak bandwidth usage
steady.
Additionally, an Ethereum research bot highlighted that shorter slot times would enhance rollup latency and
throughput while maintaining the network’s accessibility for users with varying bandwidth limitations.
For the proposal to be effective, it depends on the successful integration of EIPs 7623 and 7778, ensuring the
network remains stable and operates efficiently at a higher block rate.
Community Perspectives and Support
Justin Drake,
a researcher affiliated with the Ethereum Foundation, has shown support for this proposal on GitHub. He emphasized that
it is in line with the broader scaling vision set forth by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Drake further elaborated that implementing this change would enhance the efficiency of decentralized exchanges such
as Uniswap v3, potentially saving users close to $100 million in
arbitrage opportunities between centralized and decentralized exchanges each year.
Pseudonymous developer Cygaar commented that adopting EIP 7781 represents a crucial advancement for Ethereum’s
foundational structure. He noted that, particularly, attention has shifted towards solutions found on Ethereum Layer 2.
However, Cygaar pointed out the need for the proposal to:
“Ensure hardware requirements do not significantly escalate for individual validators and find a viable strategy
to manage the growth of state size.”
Matthew Sigel, head of digital research at VanEck, also
acknowledged the proposal’s potential to redistribute power back to Ethereum Layer 1. He suggested that these changes
might result in a substantial boost to throughput, with both Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks possibly experiencing a
50% increase in efficiency.
Related Topics Mentioned
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