Ethereum’s Gas Limit: From Tortoise Pace to Rocket Fuel in 4 Years?

In the hushed corridors of blockchain debate, a certain gentleman named Dankrad Feist—a man whose very name now graces the enigmatic “danksharding” solution—has dared to dream audaciously. His latest brainchild, EIP-9698, whispers of a curious promise: to inflate Ethereum’s gas limit a hundredfold over the stretch of four years, or as the ledger keeps count, starting from epoch 369017, which roughly translates to the beguiling month of June.

Imagine, dear reader, a world in which the gas limit swells gently like a patient sailor’s beard—growing tenfold in due course, and then, with a flourish, vaulting another tenfold at the end. This gradual ascension, a deterministic growth schedule if you will, demands a solemn vote by the Ethereum clients, as if the very nodes themselves held the reins to their fate.

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To put it plainly, the current gas limit of 36 million would balloon to a staggering 3.6 billion, squeezing perhaps some 6,000 transactions into each Ethereum block. Such ambitions follow last winter’s modest debate that nudged the limit from a cozy 30 million to 36 million—a step or two from the 2021 London hard fork’s own doubling spree.

Yet, not all is idyllic in this brave new blockchain world. Feist concedes—perhaps with a wry smile—that this rapid expansion might ruffle the feathers of less spry nodes, causing delays as these old-timers shuffle data blocks with increasing weariness. But worry not: the increments are slow, the schedule gentle, allowing time to oil the gears and swab the decks.

After years of favoring layer 2 scuffles and side-chain skirmishes, the Ethereum community now turns its gaze to scale at the very base, seeking to unite the fragmented islands of their ecosystem into a more navigable archipelago.

Yet Another Gas Limit Proposal? Hold Onto Your Hats 🎩

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Ethereum theatre, a certain EIP-9678 shuffles into the spotlight, aiming for a more modest fourfold gas limit increase in the upcoming Fusaka hard fork. Because, why not test the waters—before diving headfirst into the deep blue billion, right?

Ethereum scaling efforts

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2025-04-28 05:52