World Chain Introduces Streamed EIP-7928 Block Access Lists

World Chain is preparing to implement streamed EIP-7928 block access lists on its mainnet starting August 17. This new feature is designed to enable parallel block verification for validators, enhancing transaction throughput without necessitating more powerful hardware.

By streaming full block access lists within each flashblock, validators can begin verifying transactions while blocks are still being constructed. This method aims to tackle one of the major challenges in blockchain scalability—boosting transaction capacity while maintaining decentralization and avoiding the need for validators to upgrade their hardware.

Parallel Verification for Higher Throughput

Typically, validators on blockchain networks verify blocks by sequentially re-executing every transaction before confirming a block's validity. However, World Chain's full block access lists change this process by recording the blockchain state that each transaction reads and writes. This allows for independent transactions to be verified simultaneously across multiple CPU cores.

The implementation extends the EIP-7928 specification by streaming access list data every 200 milliseconds through its flashblock architecture. As a result, validators can begin verifying transactions immediately as blocks are being built, significantly reducing validation latency and distributing verification tasks throughout the block-building process.

Aiming for One Gigagas per Second

World Chain's technology targets a throughput of up to one gigagas per second while keeping the hardware requirements for validators effectively unchanged. This approach avoids the need for a hard fork, unlike Ethereum's upcoming implementation of EIP-7928, which will be part of the Glamsterdam upgrade. Instead, World Chain will deploy the feature through a runtime flag, enabling client operators to upgrade their software in advance of the mainnet rollout.

Internal tests on World Chain's test networks indicated that validation latency remained stable even as throughput increased significantly, achieving up to one gigagas per second using standard cloud infrastructure. This suggests that higher transaction throughput can be attained without a corresponding increase in computing resources for independent chain verification.

Commitment to Scalability and Decentralization

The rollout of streamed EIP-7928 block access lists is intended to showcase a practical method for enhancing blockchain scalability while ensuring accessibility for independent validators, a crucial element for maintaining decentralized networks. World Chain operates as a layer-2 network built on the OP Stack, secured by Ethereum, and is part of the Superchain ecosystem. It supports various applications, including stablecoin payments, international remittances, and commerce, while also integrating World ID’s proof-of-human technology.