Developer Eric Conner and former head of smart contracts at MakerDAO Mariano Conti have proposed raising the Ethereum gas limit from 30 million to 40 million. They launched a website Pump The Gas to promote the initiative.
Today, @nanexcool and I are launching an effort to help raise the Ethereum gas limit from 30mn to 40mn
This can result in a 15-33% reduction in L1 tx fees
We are calling on solo stakers, client teams, pools and community members to help#pumpthegas https://t.co/TYoyI35cle
— eric.eth (@econoar) March 19, 2024
The potential reduction in mainnet fees is estimated to be 15–33%.
“After discussions with several stakeholders, the increase seems reasonable without putting the network at risk,” the website states.
Conner and Conti have called on solo stakers, client development teams, pools, and community members to join the proposal’s implementation and offered specific recommendations.
The initiative’s authors explained that EIP-4844 in Dencun significantly reduced fees in layer two solutions but did not affect the mainnet.
“The combination of BLOBs and increasing the gas limit could help scale both L1 and L2 Ethereum,” the website notes.
Conti highlighted a similar proposal from the liquid staking platform Rocket Pool team.
A @Rocket_Pool validator proposed a block with 40m gas limit#pumpthegas pic.twitter.com/Mvb4qUrhMZ
— mariano.eth | ?? (@nanexcool) March 20, 2024
Venture investor and Ethereum supporter Evan Van Ness did not back the developers but urged critics to “avoid personal attacks.”
I’m not in favor of raising mainnet gas limit *today* as 4844 just raised the block size
But I see attacks on two Ethereum heroes @nanexcool and @econoar
That’s not cool. You can disagree without making it personal https://t.co/6J0bOik3Sb
— Evan Van Ness ? (@evan_van_ness) March 20, 2024
Founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, Marc Zeller, expressed some skepticism about the effectiveness of Pump The Gas, although he supported the proposal.
this will not reduce tx fees nor really staker revenue (priority fees stay low)
Will just add bloat and maybe more burned ETH.
But request of increase is reasonable so why not.
— Marc “Chainsaw” Zeller ? ?? (@lemiscate) March 19, 2024
“This will not reduce fees nor affect real staker revenue (priority fees remain low). It will just add bloat and possibly more burned ETH,” he stated.
The gas limit represents the maximum computational power that can be spent on processing transactions or executing smart contracts in a single block. Currently, its allowable volume is at 30 million.
In January, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggested increasing the network’s gas limit to 40 million (+33%) to enhance throughput. He was supported by lead developer of the L2 protocol Base, Jess Pollak.