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Ethereum’s 12-second block time has long been a sticking point for traders and dapps chasing the speed of high throughput chains like Solana or the UX of centralized exchanges. But a new system called TOOL (Trustless Orderflow Operations Layer) is aiming to change that, and do it without changing Ethereum itself.
Billed as a “middleware” solution, TOOL slices each 12-second Ethereum block into 12 one-second mini-rounds, each with a sealed-bid auction for transaction execution. This approach promises sub-second trade confirmations on Ethereum Mainnet — not rollups or sidechains — and without changes to the protocol.
The TOOL team says the system is designed to process order flow off-chain to offer faster and cheaper execution — without compromising Ethereum’s mainnet security or decentralization.
How it works
At the…
