What Is Ethereum EIP-7732 and What Can It Bring to the Network?

• Developers have submitted a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal for consideration.
• The new EIP promises significant efficiency benefits.
• Despite what it can offer, there are still lingering questions.

Amid past network congestion woes, a group of developers has unveiled a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal, EIP-7732, that promises to significantly boost the efficiency of network validation.

What is EIP-7732, and how can it help Ethereum enhance its overall efficiency and trustlessness?

Ethereum EIP-7732

On July 2nd, a group of developers unveiled EIP-7732 to bring enshrined proposer/builder separation (ePBS) to Ethereum. ePBS proposes changing how Ethereum blocks are verified by separating the task of confirming what happens in a block from agreeing on the block.

In this system, the block builder, typically responsible for adding and ordering transactions in a block, does not immediately add all the transaction details. Instead, they only include a signed commitment to the transactions and a value to pay the block proposer, who submits the block for approval. 

The value to pay the block proposer is calculated from the builder’s expected Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). This is determined by the type of transactions they intend to include in the block, and how they are arranged.

In this system, the builder promises to reveal the details of the block later to a “Payload Timeliness Committee (PTC),” made up of a subset of validators that check that the committed transactions are revealed on time. 

With ePBS, the block proposer will only need to verify the signature rather than all the transaction details.

Now that we know what EIP-7732 is and what it entails, let’s look at its potential benefits.

What EIP-7732 Brings

EIP-7732 promises significant efficiency benefits, particularly during peak network activity periods, as validators currently have a short time to verify what is in the block and agree on it.

By splitting these tasks, validators can quickly agree on the block during periods of high network activity and spend more time to confirm the transactions later. This model will allow for better block processing, as highlighted by “Potuz,” a co-author of EIP-7732.

At the same time, EIP-7732 promises to allow for a trustless interaction between the block proposer and builder, with the builder guaranteed to receive payment, so long as they are honest. In the status quo, block proposers typically outsource block building to a trusted third party. With EIP-7732 though, they can pick a builder from the highest bidder. 

Despite these benefits, Barnabé Monnot concedes that questions remain around the concept. Fo example, what happens when there is direct contact between the proposer and the builder? Still, he argued that the potential benefits of EIP-7732 are worth the risk, even if it would need to be replaced in the future.

"Overall, imo the highest risk to ePBS is to turn out to have been an unnecessary commitment. So I weakly believe ePBS to be in the overall right direction, and that it is worth starting to experiment with protocol changes decoupling consensus and execution, even if ePBS might eventually be replaced by something else or removed," he wrote.

On the Flipside 

• New EIP still has several processes to go through before it can be implemented on the Ethereum mainnet.

Why This Matters 

EIP-7732 is sparking much excitement as it promises to give Ethereum a significant efficiency boost. As such, it is necessary to understand what it entails and how it could work.

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