Ethereum Gas Limit Increases: Vitalik Buterin Updates

Ethereum's gas limit per block has begun to rise as validators, representing almost a majority of staked ETH, have shown support for increasing the limit, enabling higher transaction throughput on the Layer 1 blockchain. On Sunday afternoon, multiple Ethereum blocks were proposed with gas limits exceeding 39 million units, an 8% increase from the previous limit of 36 million, which had been unchanged since February, marking its first increase in over three years from a prior limit of 30 million. In the Ethereum network, gas serves as a measure of the computational and storage requirements for transactions or smart contracts. The gas limit restricts the processing power any single block can demand, maintaining blockchain functionality during high demand periods. Increasing the gas limit facilitates greater throughput during times of high activity, allowing more transactions to be processed in each block proposed approximately every twelve seconds. However, higher gas limits may pose challenges for smaller validators who might find the increased processing costs burdensome. Representatives of the "pump the gas" effort caution, "If the gas limit is raised too high, we could face a scenario where the chain becomes inoperable for solo node operators due to size constraints." They also noted advancements in technology make it sensible to gradually increase the limit over time. When validators express a preference to raise the block limit, it adjusts automatically—each block can increase the limit by around 0.1% of the previous total. Currently, about 48% of staked ETH is from clients aiming for a gas limit target of 45 million or more, driving the proposed blocks to vote for a higher limit. This initiative has gained traction among certain Ethereum communities with the slogan "pump the gas." Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin highlighted this shift in a post on social media, stating, "Almost exactly 50% of stake is voting to increase the L1 gas limit to 45 million." He also pointed out that a recent update to Geth, the leading Ethereum node client with a 54% market share, has vastly reduced the storage requirements for pruned archive nodes by about 90%, from over 20 TB to around 2 TB. Buterin praised this progress as "recent hard work by the Geth team that ensures these scale increases are safe." Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media organization providing news and research. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a primary investor in The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in various companies within the crypto industry. The exchange Bitget serves as an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block operates autonomously to deliver accurate, impactful, and timely content about the cryptocurrency sector. Here are our financial disclosures.