Ethereum Institutional backs push to shorten Ethereum block times
Non-profit calls for a faster Ethereum as institutional activity grows
Ethereum Institutional, a non-profit organization, has signaled support for an effort to reduce Ethereum's block times — the time it takes for the network to add new blocks of transactions. In a Friday post on X, the group wrote simply: “Make Ethereum faster.”
The organization argued that shorter block times are needed because “more institutional activity moves onchain,” meaning onto Ethereum's network. The push responds to increasing competition from other blockchain networks, which are working on their own speed upgrades.
Key numbers
- Ethereum's current block time is 12 seconds; the proposal aims to cut it to 10 seconds.
- The proposal, EIP-8198, is nicknamed “Quick Slots.”
- On Thursday, Ethlabs published an article quoting 20 decentralized finance (DeFi) founders showing broad support for the change.
- EIP-8198 was authored in March and was proposed for inclusion in the Hegotá upgrade at the Ethereum core developers meeting on Aug. 6.
What Ethlabs and the proposal say
Ethereum Improvement Proposals, or EIPs, are formal suggestions for changing the Ethereum network. EIP-8198 was proposed for inclusion in Hegotá, a planned network upgrade. Ethlabs said it is merging the proposal's specifications with the main codebase and investigating potential downstream dependencies, in an effort to help the proposal “meaningfully enter Hegotá's scope,” according to the report.
The article quoting 20 DeFi founders — leaders of financial applications built on blockchain — was published by Ethlabs on Thursday and, per Cointelegraph, showed broad support for the proposal.
Other networks are moving faster too
The report notes that rival networks are pursuing similar changes. On Monday, a majority of Zcash token holders backed cutting that network's target block time to 25 seconds from 75 seconds. In August, Solana reduced its slot time from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds, and in June the Solana Foundation shared plans to go further, to 200 milliseconds, arguing it would improve latency and speed up confirmations. A “slot” on Solana is the roughly equivalent unit to a block interval.
What is confirmed
Confirmed by the report: Ethereum Institutional publicly supported reducing block times and cited institutional activity moving onchain; Ethlabs published an article quoting 20 DeFi founders; EIP-8198 was authored in March and proposed for Hegotá on Aug. 6; and rival networks have made or backed their own block-time reductions.
What is still unclear
The report does not say that EIP-8198 has been accepted into Hegotá. Ethlabs' stated work — merging specifications and studying dependencies — is aimed at helping the proposal enter the upgrade's scope, but the article does not confirm that outcome. The article also does not say when a decision is expected.
Why it matters
Shorter block times would make Ethereum confirm transactions more quickly, which matters if institutions increasingly run their activities directly on the network. The reported framing is that Ethereum faces competition from faster networks, and supporters see speed as a way to keep the network attractive for institutional use.
What happens next
According to the report, Ethereum developers could begin implementing Hegotá in late 2026, following another upgrade called Glamsterdam, which Cointelegraph described as one of the year's most consequential upgrades and which is designed to improve scalability and harden the mainnet. Whether EIP-8198 is included in Hegotá remains to be determined.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.