Ethereum developers are exploring the possibility of a fourfold increase in the gas limit on the base blockchain as one of the key features of the next hard fork after Pectra, known as Fusaka. The initiative is being discussed in the project's community as part of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) number 9678, presented by Ethereum Foundation developer Sofia Gold.
The proposal suggests increasing the gas limit to 150 million units. During the last All Core Devs Execution (ACDE) meeting, it was put forward as a key feature of the Fusaka update, as reported by Ethereum developer Tim Beiko following the meeting on April 24.
Developers noted the need to scale the Ethereum base blockchain at the execution level, which can be achieved without introducing additional features.
At the same time, they acknowledged that increasing the gas limit could lead to errors in execution clients. As a result, developers will need time for testing.
“Although the gas limit is ultimately set by validators, we agreed that having an EIP to coordinate values across default clients would help maintain priority and ensure that all clients update their metrics by the time Fusaka launches,” said Beiko.
Earlier this year, blockchain validators supported the increase of the gas limit per block: it currently stands at just under 36 million. Previously, after an increase in 2021, it was 30 million.
The gas limit in Ethereum is a crucial parameter that determines the network's ability to process transactions. It is the primary unit of measurement for the computational effort required to execute transactions or smart contracts.
Every operation performed on the Ethereum network, from simple token transfers to complex interactions via smart contracts, requires a certain amount of gas. This mechanism ensures that users pay for the resources they consume and prevents network overload by malicious actors.
Thus, the gas limit defines the maximum amount of gas that can be consumed by all transactions within a single block. This limitation is a crucial protective measure against network overload and potential DoS attacks.