Ethereum Institutional, a nonprofit focused on institutional adoption of the network, has publicly endorsed a proposal to reduce Ethereum’s block times. The group backed Ethlabs’ work on EIP-8198, known as Quick Slots, which aims to cut the current 12-second interval to an initial target of 10 seconds.

In a Friday post on X, Ethereum Institutional stated the need to accelerate the network as institutional participation grows. The organization argued that shorter block times would better position Ethereum for increasing on-chain financial activity.

Ethlabs, which is advancing the proposal, reported feedback from 20 decentralized finance founders showing broad support for Quick Slots and its potential inclusion in the Hegotá upgrade. The group is merging the proposal’s specifications into Ethereum’s main codebase and examining downstream dependencies to support its entry into the upgrade’s scope.

Proposal Details and Upgrade Path

EIP-8198 was authored in March and proposed for inclusion in Hegotá during an Ethereum core developers meeting on August 6. The change would make slot duration configurable, allowing gradual reductions rather than a single large adjustment. Developers could assess network performance after the initial move to 10 seconds before considering further cuts.

Hegotá is scheduled to follow the Glamsterdam upgrade. Ethereum developers remain focused on Glamsterdam, which is set for testing on the Sepolia network in early October, with mainnet timing still under discussion. Implementation work on Hegotá could begin in late 2026 if dependencies are resolved and client teams reach agreement.

The proposal remains under consideration and has not been confirmed for Hegotá. Core developers continue to evaluate a range of items covering block production, account abstraction, privacy, validator economics and Layer 1 scaling.

Institutional Context and Competitive Pressure

Ethereum Institutional launched in July as an independent nonprofit. Its supporters at launch included BitMine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin. The group works on education, market intelligence, standards and technical requirements for banks, asset managers, custodians and other institutions.

Other networks have already advanced similar timing reductions. Solana cut its target slot time in stages, moving from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds, then through 300 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds, with a longer-term goal of 200 milliseconds. Each step has been activated separately so validators and developers can monitor performance. A majority of Zcash token holders recently backed reducing that network’s target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds as part of its NU7 upgrade discussions.

Reducing Ethereum’s slot time would increase the frequency of block production. With the current design of 32 slots per epoch, shorter slots could also affect epoch duration if the slot count stays constant. Ethlabs and core developers have indicated that any change will require thorough testing of client behavior and network stability before mainnet activation.

Support from Ethereum Institutional and DeFi founders adds momentum to the discussion, yet final inclusion depends on engineering progress, dependency resolution and consensus among client teams as the upgrade cycle advances.