Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has revealed an ambitious goal: to increase the Layer 1 gas limit by as much as 100 times. The move is meant to prepare the network for a new era of real-time decentralized computing.
His remarks followed a recent demonstration by Succinct Labs, who unveiled a functional version of their zkVM system — a solution for real-time computation verification on Ethereum’s execution layer.
🧠 Impressive Progress — But the Work Isn’t Done Yet
While Buterin praised the Succinct Labs team, he also pointed out several challenges that still need to be addressed:
🔹 The demo was tested only on average-case scenarios. For broader adoption, worst-case performance needs to be verified to ensure Layer 1 security.
🔹 The proof system lacks formal verification, which is essential for reliable long-term use.
🔹 The energy consumption for generating proofs is still too high — around 100 kW. Buterin envisions reducing that to 10 kW to allow small teams or individuals to run real-time proofs from home.
⛽ Targeting a 10–100x Gas Limit Increase
Buterin stated that the Ethereum team is actively working toward raising the Layer 1 gas limit by 10 to 100 times. The current average gas limit is about 36 million units, meaning this would increase it to 360 to 3,600 million units.
“We want 10–100x L1 gas limits,” Buterin wrote openly on X.
The gas limit on Ethereum dictates how many computational operations (like transactions or smart contract executions) can fit into a single block. A higher limit means greater network throughput — but also more demand on validators and network infrastructure.
📈 Gradual Increases — Without a Hard Fork
The last gas limit increase occurred in February 2024, when Ethereum surpassed 32 million gas units for the first time since 2021. The change was approved by 51.1% of validators and did not require a hard fork.
Since then, the limit has continued to rise, currently sitting around 36 million, up 20% year-over-year. If Buterin’s vision becomes reality, Ethereum could undergo a dramatic scaling transformation — enabling complex technologies like real-time proof systems to run directly on-chain.
🔍 Why the Gas Limit Matters
Verification systems like zkVM require far more gas than standard transactions. To make large-scale real-time computation feasible on-chain, Ethereum must expand its block capacity, without overloading the network or spiking transaction fees.
💬 Can Ethereum scale this aggressively without sacrificing decentralization and security? Will Layer 1 become a true computation layer?
#Ethereum , #Vitalik , #GAS , #Layer1 , #decentralization
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