Ethereum Institutional backs proposal to cut block time to 10 seconds

Ethereum Institutional, a nonprofit focused on institutional adoption of Ethereum, announced its support for EIP‑8198, a draft proposal that would make the network’s slot duration configurable and enable an initial reduction from the current 12‑second block time to 10 seconds.

Quick Slots proposal and Hegotá upgrade

The proposal, dubbed “Quick Slots,” was authored in March and formally presented for inclusion in the upcoming Hegotá upgrade during an Ethereum core developer meeting on August 6. Ethlabs, the research group behind the draft, is merging the specifications into the main codebase while assessing dependencies that could affect implementation.

Quick Slots would allow developers to gradually shorten slot times rather than committing to a large reduction at once. The initial target is a 10‑second slot, with the possibility of further reductions after performance testing.

Institutional backing and community feedback

Ethereum Institutional’s endorsement follows a survey of 20 decentralized‑finance founders, which showed broad support for Quick Slots and its potential inclusion in Hegotá. The organization argues that faster block times are increasingly important as “more institutional activity moves on‑chain.”

Testing and timeline

EIP‑8198 remains under consideration. Implementation work, testing, and agreement among Ethereum client teams are required before any slot‑time change can be scheduled for mainnet. The upgrade’s scope is still being narrowed; as of August, only the FOCIL proposal was formally slated for inclusion in Hegotá.

Parallel efforts on other Layer‑1 networks

Other blockchains are also pursuing faster block or slot intervals. Solana recently reduced its target slot time from 300 ms to 250 ms, part of a staged rollout that may eventually reach 200 ms. Zcash’s community voted to cut its target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds as part of the NU7 upgrade discussions.

Upcoming Ethereum upgrades

Before Hegotá, developers are focused on the Glamsterdam upgrade, which aims to increase Layer‑1 capacity and modify block construction. Glamsterdam is slated to activate on Sepolia on October 6 after testing, with a mainnet date still pending.

Should Quick Slots be approved, the reduction in slot duration would increase block production frequency, potentially shortening epoch length while keeping the 32‑slot‑per‑epoch structure.