World Chain activates streamed EIP-7928 block lists

World Chain plans to activate streamed EIP-7928 block access lists on its mainnet on Aug. 17, a move that would make it the first production Layer 2 network to include the execution data inside every flashblock as the block is being assembled. The system will publish updates roughly every 200 milliseconds, allowing validators to begin checking transactions before a complete block is available.

The deployment targets a bottleneck that has become more visible as networks pursue higher transaction capacity: validators generally re-execute a block’s transactions in sequence before accepting it. World Chain says its implementation could instead distribute verification of independent transactions across multiple CPU cores while the block-builder continues constructing the block.

The network is targeting capacity of as much as 1 gigagas per second, or one billion gas units processed each second. Gas is the computational measure used by Ethereum-compatible networks to price and limit transaction execution. Reaching that target would depend on conditions beyond the access-list feature itself, including transaction composition and available validator hardware, but the change is designed to prevent validation work from rising in lockstep with throughput.

Access lists map a block’s state changes

EIP-7928, formally known as block-level access lists, proposes an enforced record of every account and storage slot a block touches during execution. The record also includes the resulting changes to blockchain state.

That information gives a validator an advance map of which transactions depend on the same data. If two transactions read from and write to separate parts of the chain’s state, they can be independently verified at the same time. Transactions that modify the same account or storage location would remain dependent on their execution order.

Conventional validation workflows make fewer distinctions between those cases. A validator typically replays a block transaction by transaction, even when parts of the work could be handled simultaneously. As block gas limits and transaction volumes grow, sequential replay can consume more time and hardware resources, creating pressure on the parties responsible for independently checking the chain.

World Chain’s approach adds a timing component to the proposal. Rather than releasing a complete access list only after the block is finished, it will stream block-builder data in increments through flashblocks. Validators can use each partial update to begin validating the work already included in the emerging block.

World said testnet benchmarks showed validation latency remained “effectively stable” as throughput increased. The testing also indicated that the network could raise throughput without a proportional rise in the computing resources required for independent validation. The results are testnet figures rather than a guarantee of mainnet performance, where transaction demand and block contents can differ substantially.

Flashblocks turn a two-second block into a live stream

The streamed design relies on flashblocks, technology developed by Flashbots as an extension of Rollup Boost for chains built with the OP Stack. OP Stack rollups generally operate with two-second block intervals, while flashblocks divide that period into partial sub-blocks issued about every 200 milliseconds.

The architecture supports transaction preconfirmations, where users receive an early indication that a transaction has been included before the complete block is finalized. For World Chain, the same sub-block stream will also carry the data validators need to start execution checks earlier.

That places validation work inside the block-building window rather than concentrating it after block construction. In practical terms, a validator could process the first segment of a block while later segments are still arriving. The model could reduce the lag between block construction and verification if the stream remains reliable under sustained use.

World Chain, which is built on the Optimism stack, is the Layer 2 network associated with the World digital identity project co-founded by Sam Altman. Its planned activation will use a runtime flag rather than a network-wide hard fork. That gives network operators a more flexible deployment mechanism, though it also puts attention on how the feature behaves once it is enabled on live infrastructure.

A proposal headed toward Ethereum’s roadmap

The mainnet rollout arrives while EIP-7928 is being considered for Ethereum’s planned Glamsterdam hard fork, expected in the second half of the year. The proposal was introduced in March 2025 and remains a protocol change intended for Ethereum’s base layer.

Deploying the idea first on a Layer 2 gives developers an operating environment where they can test implementation details, validator behavior and performance characteristics before any possible Ethereum mainnet adoption. Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and chief executive of Consensys, has previously described Layer 2 networks as places where technical changes can be exercised before reaching Ethereum’s base layer.

World Chain is also not the first Ethereum-compatible network to experiment with block-level access lists. BNB Chain introduced a similar mechanism through BEP-592. Its developers reported improvements in CPU utilization, throughput and block-processing performance, although results from one network do not automatically transfer to another because client software, block construction and transaction patterns vary.

The Aug. 17 activation will offer a more consequential test: whether streamed access lists can preserve low validation latency on a production OP Stack chain while flashblocks are delivering updates several times per block. If the design performs as World Chain’s testnet results suggest, it could provide a practical template for rollups seeking higher execution capacity without requiring validators to scale their hardware at the same pace.