Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has confirmed that nearly 50% of validators have expressed support for raising the Layer 1 gas limit to 45 million, up from the current 37.3 million. This change could significantly increase the transaction throughput of Ethereum, allowing more complex operations and larger volumes to flow through the blockchain.
Buterin highlighted that this effort is the result of years of research and engineering improvements. He also referred to the recent Geth update (the Go Ethereum client) to version 1.16.0, which has been particularly crucial. This update reduced the storage size of archive nodes from over 20 terabytes to approximately 1.9 terabytes, making it easier for smaller validators to keep up.
The gas limit of Ethereum acts as a cap on the computational power that each block can require. Increasing this limit allows each block to accommodate more transactions, thereby speeding up the network. However, it could also put too much pressure on individual validators, which could lead to centralization.
The increase has been promoted by community initiatives with slogans like "let's raise the gas," which consider it a fair response to rising demand. While validators can gradually adjust the gas limit (about 0.1% per block), nearly 48% of staked ETH is now targeting the higher capacity.
Vitalik Buterin acknowledged that scaling is not just about pushing limits, but about "smart engineering." Previous increases in gas limits sometimes raised fears that the network could consume too many resources, excluding smaller node operators and weakening decentralization.
Buterin stated that recent client updates, such as the Geth PBSS archive mode, have made increasing capacity easier and safer. These updates reduce the need for disk space by nearly 90%. This helps maintain the decentralized nature of Ethereum even as its capacity grows.
Furthermore, Buterin warned that trying to scale Ethereum too quickly could harm the health of the network. He emphasized the need to maintain a balance between growth, security, and decentralization, which are essential to Ethereum's purpose. According to CoinGape, Buterin shared plans to improve Ethereum's scalability by up to ten times over the next year, adding to the already ambitious goals of the project.
It is worth noting that Ethereum is working to enhance its system beyond minor changes in Layer 1 fees. Recent updates, such as Proto-Danksharding and the upcoming Pectra roadmap, focus on optimizing rollups and Layer 2 sharding. These changes aim to streamline transactions and reduce costs, thereby alleviating network congestion.
Ethereum also benefits from broader trends in the cryptocurrency world. The White House is preparing its first official report on digital assets, which will be published on July 22 under Executive Order 14178. Additionally, 56 organizations have accumulated $6.44 billion in Ethereum, demonstrating significant interest from institutional investors. The increase in Ethereum's gas limit reflects the network's growth and its goal to meet rising demand.
