Theoretical Blob Hit Rate Based on the EL Mempool

Abstract

This theoretical analysis by Mikel Cortes and Yiannis Psaras from ProbeLab examines blob transaction hit rates in Ethereum's execution layer (EL) mempool to assess the feasibility of distributed block-building as a mechanism to reduce bandwidth burdens on validators who build blocks locally. Using data from the public Xatu database spanning March 1-15, 2025, the study demonstrates that blob transactions achieve high visibility across the network with 99% propagating within one second across geographically dispersed regions. Key findings show that 81.91% of proposed blob transactions are available in the public mempool before the slot in which they are included, with only 4.12% arriving after slot start, and 75.11% of blocks have all their blob transactions present in the EL mempool at the time of proposal. The results indicate that distributed block-building is theoretically viable at current blob transaction rates, though the analysis also reveals that the network currently propagates redundant information by broadcasting blob transactions first through the EL mempool and then rebroadcasting sidecars over the consensus layer's GossipSub topics, while approximately 14.76% of proposed blob transactions originate from private mempools.