Ethereum Developers to Test Quadrupling Gas Limit

Ethereum developers are considering more than quadrupling the network’s gas limit as a key feature of the planned Fusaka hard fork.

Presented during a call with ACDE, the proposal EIP-9678 suggests testing a parameter with an upper limit of 150 million units. In February, Ethereum validators supported increasing the gas limit from 30 million. According to Ycharts, the value rose by approximately 20%, reaching 35.95 million.

“To align client default settings and maintain this as a priority, we drafted EIP. It’s somewhat unconventional but not unprecedented (see EIP-7840). We plan to merge it early next week for the upcoming ACDE,” commented core developer Tim Beiko.

The proposal will require changes to other EIPs for Fusaka, but the scope of the hard fork will remain unchanged, he noted.

Regarding the need to increase the gas limit, developers led by Sophia Gold noted significant interest in scaling L1 execution. However, without new features, this effort would require client teams to spend time identifying and fixing bugs. Thus, it made sense to formalize this as an EIP and include it in the hard fork, the experts added.

The upgrade is scheduled for May 7, Pectra. Fusaka’s activation is tentatively set for late 2025.

Developers also discussed issues arising from Vitalik Buterin’s proposal to transition the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to an open RISC-V architecture. Primarily, this raised questions about the viability of continuing work on the Ethereum Object Format (EOF).

“There is some understanding that EOF may not be a long-term execution environment. Whether it’s RISC-V or another solution, part of our discussions should be whether to proceed with EOF,” Beiko emphasized.

Back in March, changes occurred in the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership. Following management reshuffles, the organization shifted its focus to user experience and L1 scaling issues.