diff --git a/codex.nimble b/codex.nimble
index 41da92b7..42347710 100644
--- a/codex.nimble
+++ b/codex.nimble
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ requires "bearssl >= 0.1.4"
 requires "chronicles >= 0.7.2"
 requires "chronos >= 2.5.2"
 requires "confutils"
-requires "ethers >= 0.7.1 & < 0.8.0"
+requires "ethers >= 0.7.3 & < 0.8.0"
 requires "libbacktrace"
 requires "libp2p"
 requires "metrics"
diff --git a/codex/codex.nim b/codex/codex.nim
index e5f1bfba..c5bcb7b6 100644
--- a/codex/codex.nim
+++ b/codex/codex.nim
@@ -56,6 +56,14 @@ type
   CodexPrivateKey* = libp2p.PrivateKey # alias
   EthWallet = ethers.Wallet
 
+proc waitForSync(provider: Provider): Future[void] {.async.} =
+  var sleepTime = 1
+  while await provider.isSyncing:
+    notice "Waiting for Ethereum provider to sync..."
+    await sleepAsync(sleepTime.seconds)
+    if sleepTime < 10:
+      inc sleepTime
+
 proc bootstrapInteractions(
   s: CodexServer): Future[void] {.async.} =
   ## bootstrap interactions and return contracts
@@ -79,6 +87,7 @@ proc bootstrapInteractions(
     quit QuitFailure
 
   let provider = JsonRpcProvider.new(config.ethProvider)
+  await waitForSync(provider)
   var signer: Signer
   if account =? config.ethAccount:
     signer = provider.getSigner(account)
diff --git a/vendor/nim-ethers b/vendor/nim-ethers
index fd16d71e..4c7e351f 160000
--- a/vendor/nim-ethers
+++ b/vendor/nim-ethers
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit fd16d71ea58e8d3e5a7f41e5dfdaa3a9b693a815
+Subproject commit 4c7e351fd95af779786705eac0612b6a52b13380