Ethereum could walk twice as fast.
According to a new proposal that drove through core developer Barnabé Monnot to reduce the final time of the network of 12 seconds to 6 seconds, which means that the number of blocks produced per minute is effectively doubled.
The idea, part of EIP-7782, could be included in the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade that is planned for 2026. Proposals or public ideas discussed are common in the blockchain world and cannot necessarily go to tests.
If implemented, the proposal would reduce time in three important consensus steps: block proposals (3 seconds), certificates (1.5 seconds) and aggregation (1.5 seconds). That would shave 6 seconds of the current cycle of 12 seconds.
Faster blocks mean faster confirmations, fresher onchain data for portfolios and apps and a more seamless experience for users. For the thriving decentralized financial (Defi) economy, it could translate into tighter arbitration windows, lower trading costs and higher liquidity -all of which improve market efficiency.
However, not everyone can benefit. Slower validators may have difficulty keeping up with tighter deadlines, the bandwidth requirements can increase and poorly tested changes can risk network instability.
The Glamsterdam Hard Fork is currently in the early planning phase, with a broader focus on gas optimizations and protocolfficiency.
Read more: Ethereum blockchain is useful technology that ‘deserves love’, says Bernstein