Vitalik Buterin’s gas limit hike proposal raises concerns among ETH developers
Concerns are being raised by Ethereum developers regarding Vitalik Buterin’s recent proposal to increase the gas limit by 33%. These concerns stem from worries about the expanding size of the blockchain state.
Ethereum, the second largest blockchain, is currently facing a decision regarding a proposal made by its co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, to raise the gas limit. On January 11th, Buterin suggested a 33% increase in the gas limit in order to enhance the network’s throughput. This change would raise the limit from the current 30 million to 40 million, potentially allowing for more transactions per block and increasing the network’s capacity.
The concept of the gas limit has evolved since Ethereum’s launch in 2015. Initially set at around 3 million, the limit has gradually grown in response to the network’s increasing usage and adoption.
The Ethereum blockchain state, which stores account balances and smart contract data, currently requires approximately 267 gigabytes (GB) of space. The entire history of the blockchain is even larger, estimated to be around 900GB, according to Blockchair.
However, the proposal has faced some resistance, mainly due to concerns about the size of the blockchain’s state. Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden expressed these concerns in a blog post on January 11th, titled “Why increasing the gas limit is difficult.” He pointed out that while storage may be affordable, a larger state size could slow down the process of accessing and modifying data. Wijden also emphasized the need for definitive solutions to manage the state’s growth.
The potential increase in the gas limit also presents technical challenges, including longer synchronization times and difficulties in developing diverse clients. Martin Köppelmann, co-founder of Gnosis, highlighted that a higher gas limit could require increased bandwidth.
Péter Szilágyi, Ethereum team lead, shared similar concerns, emphasizing the trade-offs of a higher gas limit. While it may enhance transaction capacity, it could also lead to faster state growth, slower synchronization, and increased risks of network attacks and spam.
The gas limit in Ethereum acts as a cap on the amount of gas used for transactions or smart contracts in each block. It is crucial to maintain manageable block sizes in order to ensure optimal network performance. Validators have the flexibility to adjust the gas limit within certain parameters as they produce blocks.
While increasing the gas limit could theoretically improve the network’s throughput and capacity, it comes with the cost of higher hardware loads and potential network security risks. Developers are currently exploring potential solutions, such as EIP-4444 and EIP-4844, which aim to address long-term growth concerns within the Ethereum network.
