Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin calls for a 33% increase in gas limit

Vitalik Buterin suggested boosting the Ethereum gas limit to 40 million at an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) on Reddit to increase network throughput. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has proposed a “modest” increase in the gas limit to potentially boost network throughput. On Jan. 10, Buterin said at a Reddit “ask-me-anything” session organized by the Ethereum Foundation’s Research Team that the gas cap has not been adjusted in nearly three years, the longest period in the protocol’s history. “Honestly, I think doing a modest petrol limit increase even today is reasonable,” Buterin stated during the study team’s eleventh AMA. Buterin also did some quick maths and concluded that this would indicate an increase of roughly 40 million. 

The average gas limit was about 3 million gas shortly after Ethereum’s genesis in 2015, and it has climbed over time in tandem with network usage and acceptance. The Ethereum gas limit refers to the maximum quantity of gas that can be spent in each block on completing transactions or smart contracts. The price for doing a transaction or executing a contract on the blockchain is known as gas.

A gas limit is imposed to prevent blocks from becoming excessively large, which would have an impact on network speed and synchronization. Validators can also dynamically alter the gas limit within specified parameters as they generate blocks. Increasing the gas limit allows more transactions into each block, theoretically increasing the network’s overall throughput and capacity. 

According to Etherscan, average petrol costs, or the cost of transacting on Ethereum, are currently around 35 gwei, or $1.89. They have, however, been rising since the beginning of 2024 and are significantly higher for complex smart contract operations. Due to the inscriptions mania, network petrol fees increased to a 2023 high of 150 gwei in May. A gwei is an Ethereum coin that equals one billionth of an ETH. As petrol fees rose amid another wave of speculative hype in November, Ethereum and Bitcoin users rekindled the scalability argument.

Buy and sell crypto in minutes with 0.20% trading fees at Bitdenex Exchang