A new Ethereum Improvement Proposal calls for lowering the network’s slot time, increasing blobs per block and scaling layer

Ethereum goes through periods of network congestion and high transaction fees, which limits its ability to handle a growing number of users and decentralized applications. Developers are debating whether a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) could hold the answer to the layer 1’s scaling issues.

On Oct. 5, Illyriad Games cofounder and Nethermind contributor Ben Adams floated EIP-7781 — a proposal that aims to reduce Ethereum’s slot time from 12 seconds to eight seconds in order to lower peak bandwidth.

Shorter slot times would allow for more frequent block production, potentially increasing the overall transaction throughput of the network. The proposal aims to increase throughput by 33% without increasing individual block or blob counts.