We’ve split the atom(!) and enter a new era breaking Ethereum blocks down into synthetic 100ms sub-blocks on mainnet. These ‘Realtime Blocks’ were the result of many teams working tirelessly, and independently, to make Ethereum better. This new era, the realtime era, is a significant milestone for Ethereum and the ecosystem at large - let’s break this down 👇👇
Context: ETHGas enables people to buy blockspace in advance, trade it, strip it apart, and generally sequence blocks as they like. Typically, these players (traders/block builders) maximize MEV in the block as that’s well — that’s just what people have done. Not in this case, however.
Approach: In this case, the buyer decided to sequence the public mempool based on the time-of-arrival creating sub-blocks or miniature blocks where the state was updated and preconfirmed each 100ms effectively creating a realtime experience. What this means is that you could trade multiple times within a block, and at different prices, knowing that the sequence/order would be respected at the end of the block.
Failure IS an option: Each mini-block, and in particular the sequence of each is an execution guarantee, the hallmark of the broader preconf initiatives. If realtime blocks are not proposed, the validator gets slashed, with collateral posted as native ETH or restaked via @Eigencloud. While we expect uptime to be 99.99%, one might almost ‘hope’ that the Proposer defaults as that should result in a higher EV all things equal.
How: On the building side, we did this by first simulating transactions using the trace_call part of the Ethereum node debug API, tried a couple other approaches but then later elected to implement Flashbot’s flashblocks for its robustness and time in the field. Experimenting with different approaches enabled us to build Realtime Blocks as fast as 50ms by removing state root validation (i.e. making it optimistic).
This is 240x faster than Ethereum currently, 8x faster than Solana/Monad, and 10-20x faster than most L2s. Insane when considering it's the largest, most decentralized L1, and now - the fastest.
On the execution guarantee side: We plugged into the ETHGas marketplace securing blockspace in advance, added some traditional inclusion preconfs for fun thus marrying both the ‘realtime/present’ and ‘future’ aspects of blockspace pipeline whilst mitigating counterparty risk.
An elegant combination of technology, economics and mass coordination across the ecosystem
This is 240x faster than Ethereum currently, 8x faster than Solana/Monad, and 10-20x faster than most L2s. Insane when considering it's the largest, most decentralized L1, and now - the fastest.
On the execution guarantee side: We plugged into the ETHGas marketplace securing blockspace in advance, added some traditional inclusion preconfs for fun thus marrying both the ‘realtime/present’ and ‘future’ aspects of blockspace pipeline whilst mitigating counterparty risk.
An elegant combination of technology, economics and mass coordination across the ecosystem
Details
• First Realtime Block: 23788705
• EtherScan:
• Time of first Realtime Block: 2025-11-13 07:10:28.196
• Proposed at: 2025-11-13 07:10:35
• Available time to build realtime blocks: 6,703ms
• # of realtime blocks built: 44
• Avg time per realtime block: 152ms
• Total transactions included: 71etherscan.io/block/23788705
• First Realtime Block: 23788705
• EtherScan:
• Time of first Realtime Block: 2025-11-13 07:10:28.196
• Proposed at: 2025-11-13 07:10:35
• Available time to build realtime blocks: 6,703ms
• # of realtime blocks built: 44
• Avg time per realtime block: 152ms
• Total transactions included: 71etherscan.io/block/23788705
A New Era - Why?: Turning Ethereum realtime removes the majority of MEV which is traditionally the main source of yield enhancement for Validators. Why would validators bite the hand that feeds them?
The main beneficiary of ‘realtime’ however is the blockchain and ecosystem at large, but DEXes and their LPs specifically. As a result of this, from the @jason_of_cs, @ciamac, and @Tim_Roughgarden , piece on “Automated Market Making and Arbitrage Profits in the Presence of Fees” (arxiv.org/pdf/2305.14604) , we expect MEV to decrease by 90% and revenue to LPs to increase somewhere from 2-10x.
The main beneficiary of ‘realtime’ however is the blockchain and ecosystem at large, but DEXes and their LPs specifically. As a result of this, from the @jason_of_cs, @ciamac, and @Tim_Roughgarden , piece on “Automated Market Making and Arbitrage Profits in the Presence of Fees” (arxiv.org/pdf/2305.14604) , we expect MEV to decrease by 90% and revenue to LPs to increase somewhere from 2-10x.
The Economics of Realtime: Uniswap LPs earn over $1bn each year in fees - while blockspace on L1 isn’t infinite, both Toxic and non-Toxic traders can now push through 2..3..4x the number of trades within the same block increasing revenue to LPs whilst significantly reducing their info asymmetry risk. We expect DEX fees to decrease markedly (benefiting traders) and have articulated that with some empirical data in a research piece by @antsae_ here: ethresear.ch/t/the-economic…
With faster blockchains, and highly performant perp-dexes, this gives Ethereum DEXes the turbo they need.
On the one hand, we’d expect DEX LPs to earn about ~3x what they’re currently earning - that’s $2bln more vs today. See ETH and SEI graphs below for expected changes in LP fees due to toxic orderflow alone.
On the other hand, that $2bln could be an additional -2% in yield enhancement (rounding for legibility/understanding) for Ethereum Validators above consensus layer rewards. Validators typically earn about 0.20% at the execution layer from ‘bad’ MEV but now Validators could potentially earn 10x that or 2% in a ‘good’ way by cutting that addiction. Has a great ring to it.
With faster blockchains, and highly performant perp-dexes, this gives Ethereum DEXes the turbo they need.
On the one hand, we’d expect DEX LPs to earn about ~3x what they’re currently earning - that’s $2bln more vs today. See ETH and SEI graphs below for expected changes in LP fees due to toxic orderflow alone.
On the other hand, that $2bln could be an additional -2% in yield enhancement (rounding for legibility/understanding) for Ethereum Validators above consensus layer rewards. Validators typically earn about 0.20% at the execution layer from ‘bad’ MEV but now Validators could potentially earn 10x that or 2% in a ‘good’ way by cutting that addiction. Has a great ring to it.
Next Steps: Many considerations here:
• this is offchain and centralized - so too, is the rest of the PBS pipeline, but from a trust perspective, some important work is needed down the line with setting up multiple nodes and have some type of leader election process
• reliability - multiple perspectives but as for uptime, we believe Realtime Blocks could be ‘successful’ in about 99.99% of prospective blocks where the other 0.01% of cases would lead to ‘standard’ blocks requiring that we find handling for these ‘outages’
• scaling: with latency going to zero, the focus shifts to Blockspace being the limiting factor. While we’re at 36mm gas today, we can support maybe 2-3x the trading volume but run out of blockspace quickly. Post-Fusaka and into late 2026 the hope is this goes 5x to 150-200mm context which will relieve supply constraints.
• multiple relays: we’re operating a single (multi-node) relay today but will have a few 3rd party relays in support of this shortly with prelim design specs mostly mapped out
• and many more surely..
• this is offchain and centralized - so too, is the rest of the PBS pipeline, but from a trust perspective, some important work is needed down the line with setting up multiple nodes and have some type of leader election process
• reliability - multiple perspectives but as for uptime, we believe Realtime Blocks could be ‘successful’ in about 99.99% of prospective blocks where the other 0.01% of cases would lead to ‘standard’ blocks requiring that we find handling for these ‘outages’
• scaling: with latency going to zero, the focus shifts to Blockspace being the limiting factor. While we’re at 36mm gas today, we can support maybe 2-3x the trading volume but run out of blockspace quickly. Post-Fusaka and into late 2026 the hope is this goes 5x to 150-200mm context which will relieve supply constraints.
• multiple relays: we’re operating a single (multi-node) relay today but will have a few 3rd party relays in support of this shortly with prelim design specs mostly mapped out
• and many more surely..
Bigger Picture: Realtime Ethereum is real. We can continue doing this immediately with 3-4% of blockspace, and much more with the right support from both Validators and DAPPs like @uniswap, @curvefinance, and similar/others who stand to benefit from it most in the near-term.
Truly transformative and just all-round super exciting.
Congrats to the team for making this happen, as well as the Validators, Builders, and broader community who believe in somETHing bigger (and faster).
Truly transformative and just all-round super exciting.
Congrats to the team for making this happen, as well as the Validators, Builders, and broader community who believe in somETHing bigger (and faster).
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