Ethereum developers debate remedies for soaring gas fees

Ethereum developers, during another conference call, discussed the sharp rise in transaction fees and possible remedies, according to Cointelegraph.

Independent researcher Alexey Akunov raised the question of the role of tokenised gas in the rise of transaction fees.

In his words, the mempool often contains a multitude of transactions at a given gas price intended for issuing such tokens. The researcher compared this to an exchange order book, where traders bid to buy assets at low price levels, placing corresponding bids. According to Akunov, such transactions are not easily cancelled, and this leads to artificially inflated gas prices.

The essence of one proposal is to remove the reimbursement mechanism that makes the existence of gas tokens possible. Akunov emphasised that creating such tokens accounts for only around 2% of current gas costs.

The developers also discussed the proposal EIP-2929, put forward by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and developer Martin Swende. It proposes a substantial increase in gas costs for certain storage operations.

This approach helps protect the network from potential DoS attacks. Its implementation could reduce the cost of some other operations. Akunov noted that some nuances of EIP-2929 require further discussion.

In addition, the developers discussed EIP-2711. It entails granting one account the ability to pay another’s fees. It also provides an option to create batched transactions with guaranteed execution order.

The proposals were examined in the context of their possible inclusion in the Berlin upgrade, whose launch was due to take place in the summer.

As reported, the average transaction fee in the Ethereum network exceeded $10.

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