The plan seeks to reduce Ethereum’s current 12-second slot time incrementally to as low as 2 seconds, alongside cutting finality from roughly 16 minutes to a target range of 6 to 16 seconds.
“Fast slots are off in their own lane at the top of the roadmap, and do not really seem to connect to anything,”
Said Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin.
Buterin explained that slot time reductions would likely follow a gradual pattern moving from 12 seconds to 8, 6, 4 and eventually 2 seconds, supported by peer-to-peer communication upgrades designed to reduce block propagation delays without compromising security.
“The goal is to decouple slots and finality, to allow us to reason about both separately,”
Buterin said, describing the shift as a substantial redesign that would also involve adopting post-quantum hash-based signatures.
He added that one consequence of the phased approach could be quantum-resistant slots before fully quantum-resistant finality, meaning the chain could continue operating even if future quantum breakthroughs undermined existing confirmation guarantees.
The roadmap, published as part of the Ethereum Foundation’s “Strawmap” initiative, envisages seven protocol forks over the next four years, with Glamsterdam and Hegotá already scheduled for release later this year.
At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $2,055.50.