Ethereum Client Teams Advance EIP-8198 Quick Slots to CFI for Hegotá

Ethereum client teams have moved EIP-8198, “Quick Slots,” to Considered for Inclusion for the Hegotá upgrade, recorded in the Hegotá meta EIP on Oct. 5, 2026. It proposes shorter slots than today’s 12 seconds. Nothing is scheduled. NFA.

Call Outcome on October 1

All Core Devs – Consensus call #188 took place on October 1, 2026. Client teams agreed during that call to list EIP-8198 as CFI for Hegotá. The decision followed discussion of slot timing and the need for further checks before any later stage.

The published summary of the call notes that a reduction from 12 seconds to 10 seconds would still require validation. Only after such validation could the proposal advance toward Scheduled for Inclusion.

Meta EIP Update

Pull request #12429 on the ethereum/EIPs repository was merged on October 5, 2026. That merge updated EIP-8081, the Hegotá meta EIP, to record EIP-8198 as CFI. The entry lists the proposal alongside its author, Carl Beekhuizen, and a brief description of its purpose.

EIP-8081 already lists two other EIPs as Scheduled for Inclusion in Hegotá: FOCIL under EIP-7805 and Frame Transaction under EIP-8141. The activation table for Sepolia, Hoodi, and mainnet remains blank pending further decisions by client teams.

Technical Details in the Draft

EIP-8198 turns the current fixed 12-second slot duration into a runtime setting. The draft uses 8 seconds as a placeholder and states that the final target could shift after testing. Barnabé Monnot noted on the October 1 call that the intended Hegotá target stands at 10 seconds.

The proposal keeps 32 slots per epoch. At an 8-second slot length the text estimates finality would drop from roughly 13 minutes to about 8.5 minutes. Block gas limits and blob counts would scale with slot length so that throughput per second remains unchanged.

Status Under EIP-7723

EIP-7723 defines CFI as the stage where client developers intend to test an EIP in devnets. It does not guarantee mainnet inclusion and leaves room for the proposal to be declined later. Some participants on the October 1 call supported adjustable slot timing yet raised questions about introducing the change in Hegotá without additional testing.

No activation dates exist for Hegotá on any network. Slot-time validation must occur before any move to Scheduled for Inclusion. The proposal therefore stays at the CFI stage with targets still subject to change.