As the debate about Ethereum (ETH) scaling on L1 level becomes more and more heated, Ethereum (ETH) engineers and researchers proposed a protocol improvement proposal that would allow the blockchain to parallelize transaction execution and block validation.
EIP 7928 to allow transaction execution in parallel with Block-Level Access Lists (BALs)
Ethereum (ETH), the oldest and largest smart contracts network, is to receive completely new scaling workload. With EIP 7928 “Block-Level Access Lists,” Ethereum (ETH) will be able to include in blockchain a complete list of all addresses and storage keys accessed during this or that block, along with their post-execution values.
Block-level Access Lists (EIP-7928) could unlock major scaling gains for Ethereum L1 by enabling faster, parallel block validation.
In my latest post, I break down the design space, variants, and trade-offs behind this proposal:
🔗 https://t.co/t3BdQ8Yq7N
TL;DR 👇— Toni Wahrstätter ⟠ (@nero_eth) May 14, 2025
Authored by Ethereum (ETH) veterans Toni Wahrstätter, Dankrad Feist, Francesco D`Amato, Jochem Brouwer, Ignacio Hagopian, Yoav Weiss and Alex Forshtat, the new proposal is expected to enable parallel disk reads and parallel transaction validation.
This, in turn, is poised to increase execution efficiency and accelerate block validation, potentially allowing for future gas limit increases.
To achieve this goal, the new EIP introduces three new components to the block body in Ethereum (ETH). Block Access List (BAL) that maps transactions to accessed addresses and storage slots, transaction indices and post-execution values is the key element here.
As explained by Wahrstätter, once approved, EIP 7928 will boost the performance of Ethereum (ETH) validators:
What are Block-level access lists (BALs)? BALs are builder-supplied “cheat sheets” that tell validators what each transaction in a block will do—so they can validate faster
L1 scaling comes here with shorter slot times and higher gas limits, the researcher added.
Post-Pectra, Ethereum (ETH) moves to Fusaka: What to know
Such EIPs are part of a broader discussion in the Ethereum (ETH) community. While some Ethereans are only betting on L2s as potential ways to scale Ethereum (ETH), their opponents highlight the necessity to focus on L1 enhancements as well.
As covered by U.Today previously, Ethereum (ETH) successfully activated its most ambitious hard fork since Pow-to-PoS migration, Pectra, on May 7.
With the Pectra upgrade live, Ethereum (ETH) received advanced account abstraction as well as a more flexible and powerful ETH staking design.
As a follow-up to Pectra, Ethereum (ETH) is expected to activate the Fulu-Osaka (Fusaka) upgrade in late 2025. It is set to implement PeerDAS, a feature designed to optimize L2 costs by sampling off-chain data, and new developments for smart contract security.
