Technologie & IA
Ethereum EIP-7843 proposes direct slot-number access for contracts
The SLOTNUM proposal lists November 1 as its Last Call deadline. It would avoid deriving slots from timestamps, without announcing an activated change to network timing.
Olivia ParkerEditorial pen name
Reviewing access to consensus time
EIP-7843 reaches the Last Call deadline shown in its official document on November 1, 2026. Created on December 6, 2024, by Marc Harvey-Hill, it still shows Last Call when checked. The Ethereum proposal would introduce an instruction allowing a contract to obtain the slot number corresponding to the current block. This is a technical review milestone rather than a tool already activated for every application.
A slot is a position in the consensus schedule, distinct from a simple block number. The document describes two current approaches: calculating it from a timestamp or supplying it with a proof tied to a consensus block root. The first hardcodes an assumption about slot duration; the second requires additional verification and computation that the proposal seeks to avoid.
A two-gas instruction and another header field
The proposed SLOTNUM instruction would use opcode 0x4b and push the block’s slot number onto the stack. Its specified fixed cost is two gas. That prices the instruction alone, not a whole transaction, and guarantees no universal fee reduction. The proposal aligns the cost with comparable basic instructions.
The consensus client would calculate the value and pass it to the execution layer. A slotNumber field would be added to the header and objects exchanged through the Engine API connecting those layers. The document describes method versions needed to build, receive, and select blocks with that information. Applications would no longer need to duplicate a conversion rule tied to assumed slot duration.
Allowing evolution without promising faster blocks
The main motivation is reducing the coupling between contracts and network timing. A hardcoded calculation could become unsuitable if slot duration changed. Exposing the consensus-provided number would preserve that abstraction. Including the information in the header is also intended to keep a block self-contained for execution-proving systems, without a separate additional input.
The proposal sets no new slot duration and establishes no decision to shorten it. It supplies no detailed test cases and reports no compatibility issues in its dedicated section; neither statement demonstrates deployment. The issue for developers is more direct access to consensus information. November 1 concerns review of that mechanism, separately from adoption and actual network availability.