Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a “modest” increase in the gas limit to potentially enhance the network’s throughput. During a Reddit ask-me-anything (AMA) session hosted by the Ethereum Foundation’s research team on January 10, Buterin pointed out that the gas limit has remained unchanged for nearly three years, marking the longest duration in the protocol’s history.
“Honestly, I think doing a modest gas limit increase even today is reasonable,” Buterin stated during the research team’s 11th AMA. He also performed some quick calculations, suggesting that this would mean an increase to approximately 40 million. The current gas limit stands at 30 million, as per Etherscan, indicating that Buterin is recommending a 33% increase.
The Ethereum gas limit is the maximum amount of gas that can be spent on executing transactions or smart contracts in each block. Gas is the fee required to carry out a transaction or execute a contract on the blockchain. A gas limit is established to prevent blocks from becoming too large, which could affect network performance and synchronization. Validators can also dynamically adjust the gas limit within certain parameters as they produce blocks.
Increasing the gas limit allows more transactions to be included in each block, theoretically enhancing the network’s overall throughput and capacity. However, it also increases the load on hardware and the potential risk of network spam and attacks.
The average gas prices, or the cost of transacting on Ethereum, are currently around 35 gwei or $1.89, according to Etherscan. However, they have risen since the start of 2024 and are significantly higher for complex smart contract operations. Network gas fees reached a 2023 high of 150 gwei in May due to the inscriptions craze. A gwei is a denomination of Ethereum that represents one billionth of a single Ether (ETH $2,642). In November 2023, Ethereum and Bitcoin users reignited the scalability debate as fees surged amid another round of inscriptions hype.
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| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | Global |
| Countries | |
| Sentiment | neutral |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Vitalik Buterin |
| Companies | Ethereum Foundation, FXStreet, Etherscan |
| Currencies | Ethereum, Bitcoin |
| Securities | None |
