Ethereum’s institutional arm has thrown its weight behind a plan to make the network faster. Ethereum Institutional posted on Friday, writing simply: “Make Ethereum faster,” and citing growing institutional activity on the chain as the reason.
The non-profit’s backing comes as Ethlabs pushes ahead with EIP-8198, also known as “Quick Slots.” That proposal aims to cut Ethereum’s block time from 12 seconds to 10 seconds. The move follows similar efforts across the broader crypto space.
The Quick Slots push
Ethlabs published a Thursday post quoting 20 DeFi founders who back EIP-8198. The proposal was authored in March and was proposed for inclusion in the Hegotá upgrade at the Ethereum core developers meeting on Aug. 6. Ethlabs said it is merging the proposal’s specifications with the main codebase and investigating potential downstream dependencies to help it “meaningfully enter Hegotá’s scope.”
Ethereum developers could begin implementing Hegotá in late 2026 following Glamsterdam, designed to improve scalability and harden the mainnet. The timeline puts the upgrade window after the Glamsterdam deployment, which itself is part of the sequence of upgrades aimed at strengthening the network’s infrastructure.
Competitors are moving too
Other blockchain networks are not waiting around. On Monday, the majority of Zcash token holders backed cutting the network’s target block time to 25 seconds, down from 75 seconds.
Solana has also moved fast. In August, it reduced its slot time from 400 milliseconds to 350ms. In June, the Solana Foundation shared plans to reduce slot times from 400ms to 200ms, arguing that it would improve latency and accelerate confirmations on the blockchain network.
What the block time change means
Reducing block times matters because it affects how quickly transactions can settle on a network. Faster blocks mean faster confirmations. For institutional users, that can be the difference between a trade landing within minutes or hours.
Shorter block times can also increase the chance of forks, though the source does not say this explicitly.
“Make Ethereum faster”
Why the institutional push now
Ethereum Institutional’s statement points directly at the demand driving the change. More institutional activity is moving onchain, and the network needs to keep pace.
The timing fits a broader pattern. As more financial institutions move crypto assets onto public ledgers, the networks they use need to perform at enterprise scale. Faster block times are one way to meet that demand.
What happens next
The path to implementation remains open. Ethlabs is working through the codebase changes.
Here is where the competing moves stand:
- Zcash token holders voted to cut block time to 25 seconds from 75 seconds
- Solana reduced slot time from 400ms to 350ms in August
- Solana plans to further reduce slot times to 200ms from 400ms
- Quick Slots aims to bring Ethereum block time down to 10 seconds from 12 seconds
Zcash and Solana have already made their moves. Ethereum’s move, if it lands, would put it in the same race.
The question is what the network delivers, and when.
Source material: “Ethereum Institutional signals support for Ethlabs’ motion to reduce Ethereum block times,” Cointelegraph.
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