Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a “modest” augmentation of the gas limit to potentially enhance network throughput. In a Reddit “ask-me-anything” session organized by the Ethereum Foundation’s Research Team on January 10, Buterin highlighted that the gas limit has remained unchanged for nearly three years, marking the lengthiest period without an increase in the protocol’s history.
During the 11th AMA of the research team, Buterin expressed his belief that a reasonable step would be to implement a modest gas limit increase at present. He briefly performed some calculations, suggesting that this adjustment would bring the gas limit to around 40 million. Currently set at 30 million, as indicated by Etherscan, this proposed increase amounts to a 33% rise.
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Following Ethereum’s genesis in 2015, the average gas limit stood at approximately 3 million gas, gradually increasing over time in tandem with the growth in network usage and adoption.
The Ethereum gas limit signifies the maximum allowable amount of gas allocated for executing transactions or smart contracts within each block. Gas, acting as the transaction or contract execution fee on the blockchain, is vital for facilitating these operations.
To maintain optimal network performance and synchronization, a gas limit is imposed to prevent blocks from becoming excessively large. Validators possess the capability to dynamically adjust the gas limit within specified parameters as they generate blocks.
A rise in the gas limit has the potential to accommodate more transactions in each block, theoretically enhancing the overall throughput and capacity of the network. However, this adjustment also brings about increased hardware loads and heightens the susceptibility to network spam and attacks. Presently, average gas prices for Ethereum transactions are around 35 gwei or $1.89, according to Etherscan. Notably, these prices have seen a consistent uptrend since the beginning of 2024, particularly for intricate smart contract operations.
In May of 2023, network gas fees reached a peak of 150 gwei during the fervor surrounding inscriptions. A gwei, denoting one billionth of an ETH, is a crucial unit in Ethereum.
The scalability debate resurfaced in November, as Ethereum and Bitcoin users grappled with escalating gas fees amid another surge in inscriptions hype.