The Ethereum Foundation’s Research Team recently had a Reddit AMA where Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, proposed changing the network’s gas limit.
Citing the greatest period of stagnancy in Ethereum’s history—nearly three years—Buterin suggested a 33% increase in the gas limit, possibly reaching 40 million. Let’s discover more about this important news.
Vitalik Buterin Advocates Gas Limit Modifications in Ethereum
This change attempts to increase the network’s throughput capacity, as opposed to the existing 30 million limit per Etherscan.
Shortly after Ethereum’s genesis in 2015, the average gas limit was approximately 3 million. This limit has grown over time in pace with adoption and network usage. According to Etherscan, the average gas price is currently 35 gwei, or $1.89. However, there has been a price increase since the new year for complicated smart contract operations.
🚨BREAKING 🚨
VITALIK BUTERIN URGES FOR AN INCREASE IN ETHEREUM GAS LIMIT AFTER NEARLY THREE YEARS. pic.twitter.com/BpuxvqdWsV
— Bullion (@Bullionclb) January 11, 2024
This proposed modification has significant effects on Ethereum’s performance. It goes beyond being a numerical tweak. For a start, the gas limit is an essential component of Ethereum’s architecture. It sets the maximum amount of gas that can be used to execute transactions or smart contracts on a block.
Ethereum requires gas fees for transactions or executing contracts on the chain. One of the benefits of the gas limit is that it prevents excessively large blocks. This can affect network synchronization and performance.
Slightly higher hardware requirements and increased block processing time pic.twitter.com/i0W9SYNdGj
— cygaar (@0xCygaar) January 10, 2024
Another core benefit of increasing the gas limit is that it would allow more transactions into each block. Thus, it increases the network’s capacity and throughput. But it also raises the possibility of network spam and attacks, as well as increasing the hardware load.
It is safe to say that Buterin’s proposal is a dilemma between boosting transactional capacity and sustaining network stability.
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