ETHGas sells advance Ethereum block reservations to Wall Street

Ethereum blockspace project ETHGas is pitching Wall Street on Institutional Blockspace, a service that would let banks and trading firms reserve space in upcoming Ethereum blocks, choose which validators process their transactions and screen counterparties for sanctions compliance — while transactions still settle on Ethereum's public network. Founder Kevin Lepsoe says the goal is making Ethereum predictable for large institutional transfers without forcing firms onto private blockchains.

• The catch: validators that fail to deliver on commitments currently face no financial compensation requirement — "the compensation amount is set to 0," Lepsoe said, with mechanisms left for the market to price.
• Qualified validators represent only about 5% of Ethereum's network, with a target of 20–30% or more by year-end; at 5% coverage the expected wait for an eligible validator to propose a block is roughly four minutes.
• A Delphi Digital report — produced under a paid agreement with ETHGas — describes about $800 million in blockspace commitments and a three-year agreement involving roughly $3 billion of ether from ether.fi, including exclusive use of ETHGas's pre-confirmation platform.
• No bank using the service in production has been identified.