Ethereum senior researcher proposed EIP-9698 to increase the Gas limit by 100 times, aiming to achieve this within four years. If this proposal is passed, it is expected to significantly enhance the transaction processing capability of the Ethereum base layer to 2000 TPS, potentially surpassing the current performance of Solana. ？？？

Senior Ethereum researcher proposes EIP-9698 to increase gas limit by 100 times, aiming to achieve this within four years. If this proposal passes, it is expected to significantly boost Ethereum's base layer transaction processing capacity to 2000 TPS, potentially surpassing the current performance of Solana. (Background: After ten years of trials and tribulations, can Ethereum usher in a 'great surge'?) (Context: ADA founder criticizes Ethereum's 'three major shortcomings': Vitalik admits Cardano is better, ETH may disappear within ten years) Recently, Ethereum has faced serious external skepticism, appearing to fall behind other application public chains in competition. However, Dankrad Feist, a senior researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, has proposed an ambitious performance expansion plan 'EIP-9698', which aims to gradually increase Ethereum's mainnet gas limit by 100 times over the next four years, from the current 36 million to 3.6 billion. If this proposal is successfully implemented, it could theoretically increase Ethereum's base layer (Layer 1, L1) transaction processing capacity to 2000 transactions per second (TPS), which is already twice the current average TPS of around 1000 for competitor Solana, sparking heated discussions within the Ethereum community. Ethereum returns to Layer 1 expansion. For a long time, Ethereum has primarily relied on Layer 2 solutions to address scalability challenges, such as Rollups and other technologies. The EIP-9698 proposal indicates that Ethereum is reassessing the possibility of balancing its expansion roadmap, seeking a balanced development path for both L1 and L2. According to the proposal, EIP-9698 plans to adopt a phased and gradual approach to increase the gas limit. It is expected to raise the gas limit by 10 times in the first two years, followed by another increase of 10 times in the next two years, ultimately achieving a total increase of 100 times within four years. This gradual adjustment will be implemented through a client voting mechanism, providing network participants with ample time to adapt to changes and reducing potential risks. The significant increase in the gas limit will bring multiple benefits to Ethereum, the most direct impact being a substantial increase in the number of transactions that each block can accommodate. Theoretically, a single block could contain about 6,000 transactions. This is expected to significantly alleviate network congestion, thereby reducing transaction fees (Gas Fee) paid by users. At the same time, the transaction processing capacity could theoretically reach 2000 TPS, although there is still a gap compared to the theoretical peak claimed by some competitors, it has significantly narrowed the difference in actual processing capacity (for example, Solana's observed TPS usually ranges from 800 to 1,050). Scalability challenges. Significantly increasing the gas limit also brings undeniable technical challenges. First, the pressure on current node operators has significantly increased; larger blocks require more powerful computer hardware to process and store, which may raise the threshold for running full nodes, posing a potential challenge to Ethereum's decentralization. Secondly, the increase in block size may lead to longer propagation times for blocks across the network, impacting the network's stability and security. Issues such as state growth and execution delays also need in-depth research and resolution. The EIP-9698 proposal is closely related to Ethereum's existing technical roadmap and needs to be coordinated with upcoming upgrades (such as the anticipated Fusaka hard fork at the end of 2025 and the Pectra upgrade in May 2025). This proposal reflects the Ethereum development community's renewed focus on base layer expansion and may guide Ethereum towards a more balanced path of L1 and L2 working in tandem to better meet the growing demands of decentralized applications. Overall, the EIP-9698 proposal is a bold plan with great potential. If it can overcome the technical challenges and be successfully implemented, it will have a profound impact on Ethereum's performance and ecosystem, especially in handling high transaction volumes and reducing user costs. This proposal has also sparked a new round of discussions within the community on how to achieve the best balance between scalability, decentralization, and security. Whether Ethereum can maintain its core values and consolidate its leading position while advancing base layer expansion is something we should continue to monitor.