Upcoming Enhancement for Ethereum:Over 150,000 validators back Gas Limit Boost

Upcoming Enhancement for Ethereum:Over 150,000 validators back Gas Limit Boost

In a move aimed at enhancing the network's speed, capacity, and efficiency, Ethereum is discussing a proposal to increase its gas limit. The proposed increase would raise the gas limit from the current 36 million units to 45 million units per block, representing a 25% increase.

This change, driven by community and validator support, is part of a broader strategy to scale the network. Nearly 47-48% of validators staking ETH are backing this increase as part of the "pump the gas" campaign.

The gas limit defines the maximum amount of computational work (transactions and smart contracts) that can be included in each block. By raising the gas limit to 45 million, Ethereum effectively increases its throughput capacity, allowing more transactions and more complex operations per block. This, in turn, speeds up the network and improves efficiency.

Benefits of the Gas Limit Increase

The proposed increase offers several advantages. Higher throughput means Ethereum’s transactions per second (TPS) could rise, with an earlier increase pushing the TPS from around 15 to nearly 18. The jump to 45 million is expected to push this further.

Reduced congestion and fees during periods of high demand are another benefit. More capacity per block helps reduce transaction wait times and gas fees. The increase also prepares Ethereum for greater usage and scalability demands as decentralized applications and DeFi usage grow.

Safety Measures and Gradual Implementation

However, the increase comes with important considerations. To avoid risks such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, developers have implemented protocols like EIP-7983, capping gas per transaction at 16.77 million units, ensuring one single transaction can’t overload a block.

The gas limit increase is implemented gradually (around 0.1% per block) and requires validator consensus at each step to maintain stability.

Balancing Security and Decentralization

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin supports the increase but cautions against increasing the gas limit too aggressively. Higher computational demands could exclude smaller node operators, potentially leading to centralization, which Ethereum seeks to avoid.

Looking ahead, the 45 million gas limit is an intermediate step. With upcoming protocol upgrades like the Fusaka hard fork and EIP-7935, longer-term ambitions include raising the gas limit to 60 million in the near term and eventually up to 150 million.

In summary, the proposed increase to a 45 million gas limit is a critical scaling measure intended to boost Ethereum’s network speed, capacity, and efficiency while balancing security and decentralization concerns. The growing demand for Ethereum in various applications, such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs, further supports this decision.

The increase in the gas limit could strengthen Ethereum's ability to support dApps with higher transaction volumes, attracting more developers and users. Currently, more than 150,000 validators support the proposal to increase the gas limit, making the possibility of its implementation more tangible.

[1] https://ethresear.ch/t/eip-7983-gas-per-tx-hard-fork-to-support-large-transactions/10705 [2] https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/network-maintainers/upgrading-to-altair/ [3] https://ethereum.org/en/upgrades/merge/ [4] https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1487559778712768517 [5] https://medium.com/@ethereum-catherina/ethereum-gas-limit-increase-eip-1559-and-the-pump-the-gas-campaign-5e8f419870c1

Technology plays a crucial role in this gas limit increase proposal for Ethereum, as it allows for the implementation of safety measures like EIP-7983, which caps gas per transaction at 16.77 million units to prevent denial-of-service attacks.

The increased gas limit of 45 million units per block, a 25% increase from the current limit, is not only a step towards scalability but also a move that incorporates safety considerations to maintain network security and decentralization.

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