Developers of the Ethereum blockchain have launched an innovative initiative aimed at increasing the network’s gas limit, which they believe will help scale Ethereum. Eric Connor, a core Ethereum developer, and Mariano Conti, former head of smart contracts at MakerDAO, introduced a new website called “pump the gas” on March 20. The goal is to raise the Ethereum gas limit from 30 million to 40 million, with the intention of reducing transaction fees on layer 1.
Connor stated that this increase could lead to a 15% to 33% reduction in layer-1 transaction fees. He called on solo stakers, client teams, pools, and community members to support this initiative. The hashtag #pumpthegas has already gained traction among Ethereum users, stakers, and DeFi investors. Conti also mentioned that a Rocket Pool validator proposed a block with a 40 million gas limit on March 20.
There has been growing support for increasing the Ethereum gas limit over the past few months. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, suggested raising the gas limit from 30 million to 40 million in January. In response, Jesse Pollak, a base contributor, expressed strong support for this increase, stating that it would benefit all parties involved.
The Ethereum gas limit refers to the maximum amount of gas spent on executing transactions or smart contracts in each block. Gas is the fee in ETH required to conduct a transaction or execute a smart contract on the network. The website explained that each operation has a predefined gas cost, and contracts have a gas limit that cannot be exceeded during execution. This ensures that malicious contracts cannot overload the network.
By raising the gas block limit by 33%, Layer 1 Ethereum will be able to process 33% more transaction load in a day, according to the website. It also highlighted that the introduction of data blobs in the Dencun upgrade with EIP-4844 has helped reduce layer-2 transaction fees but not layer-1 fees. The combination of blobs and a gas limit increase can contribute to scaling both Layer 1 and Layer 2 Ethereum.
However, not everyone is in favor of this network adjustment. Evan Van Ness, a venture investor and Ethereum advocate, expressed his opposition to raising the mainnet gas limit at this time, citing the recent increase in block size with EIP-4844. Earlier this year, Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden also voiced concerns about the proposed raise, stating that it would lead to an increase in the size of the blockchain state, potentially slowing down access and modification processes.
Other potential downsides of increasing the gas limit include higher hardware loads and the increased risk of network spam and attacks. Despite these concerns, the initiative to raise the Ethereum gas limit continues to gain momentum as developers and community members recognize its potential benefits.
Image Source: Eric Connor
Image Source: Etherscan
Image Source: Evan Van Ness
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