Tezos activates Tallinn upgrade, cuts block time to 6 seconds
Tezos has successfully activated its 20th protocol upgrade, known as Tallinn, following the completion of its on-chain governance process. The proposal received broad support from bakers (validators) and the community, continuing Tezos’ model of decentralized, forkless network evolution.
Developed by Trilitech, Functori and Nomadic Labs, Tallinn marks the 20th direct protocol amendment since Tezos launched in 2018. The network’s self-amending design allows upgrades to be proposed, approved and implemented without hard forks or downtime.
One of Tallinn’s most significant changes is the reduction of Tezos Layer-1 block time to six seconds. This lowers transaction latency and improves settlement-layer finality. The upgrade also strengthens integration between Layer-1 and Etherlink, Tezos’ EVM-compatible Layer-2 network. While Etherlink transactions already execute in under 50 milliseconds, Tallinn enables them to reach Layer-1 finality in just two blocks, or roughly 12 seconds.
On the security and staking side, Tallinn expands block attestation rights to all bakers rather than a limited subset. The use of BLS cryptographic signatures allows hundreds of validator signatures to be aggregated into a single signature per block. This enhances security, stabilizes staking rewards and reduces processing load for network nodes.
The upgrade also introduces an Address Indexing Registry for applications using the Michelson runtime. By removing redundant address data, this feature can improve storage efficiency by up to 100 times. It is expected to reduce costs and increase throughput for large NFT ledgers, address-heavy smart contracts and enterprise-scale applications.
Tezos has rolled out regular protocol upgrades since its launch, focusing on usability, security and performance. Tallinn represents another step in optimizing the network while preserving decentralization and long-term upgradeability.