During an AMA session on Reddit, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggested raising the network’s gas limit to 40 million (+33%) to enhance throughput.
The gas limit represents the maximum computational power that can be expended on processing transactions or executing smart contracts in a single block. Currently, it is set at 30 million.
“[The metric] hasn’t increased in almost three years, which is the longest period in the protocol’s history (the twofold spike on the chart at the end of 2021 is ‘fake’ as it reflects the transition to EIP-1559, which doubled the ‘limit’, but the actual average only increased by 9%),” explained the developer.
However, Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann noted that increasing the gas limit would raise operational costs for validators. Yet, in his view, the benefits of the initiative outweigh the potential issues.
now — of course this still does not mean a limit increase is without downsides. Yes — it will increase costs of running a node — but it can be done without compromising on the stability and reliability promise of Ethereum and it will make Ethereum simply more useful. It increases…
— Martin Köppelmann ?? (@koeppelmann) January 10, 2024
Unlike other innovations in Ethereum that required hard forks, this change is implemented by validators adjusting node configurations.
Lead developer of the L2 protocol Base, Jesse Pollak, also expressed support for the changes.
I’m strongly in support of increasing @ethereum gas limit to 40-45m — we have the network headroom and will be beneficial for all parties https://t.co/GQb8SbavAY
— Jesse Pollak (jesse.xyz) ?️ (@jessepollak) January 10, 2024
“I’m strongly in support of increasing the Ethereum gas limit to 40-45 million — we have the network headroom, and it will be beneficial for all parties,” he wrote.
In the Reddit thread, Buterin expressed willingness to accept the proposal to remove the 32 ETH limit for validators (EIP-7251). However, he explained that “strong guarantees [of validators’ good faith]” are needed first.
When asked about the second EVM, the co-founder of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap suggested its complete replacement by smart contracts if ZK-SNARK development is successful. This would significantly reduce the total lines of Ethereum code, he noted.
In December, Buterin shared plans for Ethereum’s development in 2024, presenting an updated roadmap.
Earlier, he proposed reviving the “cypherpunk” revolution envisioned for the network in its early days.
In November, the developer released an essay titled “My Techno-Optimism,” where he shared his views on the impact of blockchain and artificial intelligence on the development of human civilization.