© Reuters
GLOBAL – The development community is currently deliberating on a significant change proposed by co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The proposal suggests a one-third increase in the network’s gas limit, with the aim of improving the platform’s transaction capacity. This measure has sparked debate among developers, with many expressing concern about the potential impact on blockchain size and network performance.
Yesterday, Buterin put forward the idea of increasing the gas limit, a parameter that determines the computational effort required to execute operations such as transactions and smart contracts on the Ethereum network. A higher gas limit could allow for more transactions per block, potentially reducing fees and wait times for users.
However, developers such as Marius van der Wijden and Péter Szilágyi have raised important questions regarding the impact of an increased gas limit on blockchain state growth. The size of the Ethereum blockchain is already considerable (267 GB), and expanding the state of the blockchain could affect account balances and smart contract data integrity. Additionally, the size of the entire history could exceed the current 900 GB, leading to synchronization issues or increased risks of denial of service attacks.
Martin Köppelmann added to the discussion by highlighting the potential need for greater bandwidth to accommodate the increased transaction volume that a higher gas limit would bring. Mika Zoltu emphasized that technological advancements allow diverse users to access node operations without exclusion.
To alleviate these concerns, the community is considering several technical solutions. Among these, EIP-4444 offers an expiration mechanism for on-chain history, which could reduce the amount of data that nodes need to store. Additionally, EIP-4844 introduces the concept of “blobs”, a way to store rollup data that could help optimize data availability without significantly impacting blockchain size.
As the community deliberates on this crucial decision that balances advancing the network’s capabilities against preserving its stability and inclusiveness, the outcome will be closely monitored by stakeholders across the Ethereum ecosystem.
This article was generated and translated with the help of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information, see our T&Cs.