Introduction
Discussions around increasing Ethereum's Gas throughput have gained momentum, primarily through raising the Gas limit or reducing block generation time. The core argument supporting this initiative stems from the steady decline in hardware requirements for running validator nodes over the past four years.
Historical Context of Gas Limits
- 2015 Launch: Initial Gas limit set at 5,000 Gas per block
Subsequent Changes:
- 2016: Increased to 3 million
- 2017: Further raised to 8 million
- 2019: Stabilized at 10 million
- 2021: Implemented EIP-1559 with target of 15 million and hard cap of 30 million
Hardware Demand Analysis for Doubled Gas Limit
Storage Considerations (The Primary Bottleneck)
State Growth Patterns:
- Linear Growth: Monthly increase of ~2.5GB (30GB annually)
- Impact: Storage access time differences become negligible due to logarithmic query complexity
Technological Advancements:
- Hardware costs declining faster than state growth
- Validators already require 4TB+ storage capacity
- SSD prices halve approximately every two years (exceeding Ethereum's linear growth)
👉 Understand Ethereum's storage economics
Bandwidth Requirements
Current Metrics:
- Average bandwidth: 2MB/s
- Maximum recorded block size: 270KB (pre-Deneb)
- Post-Deneb average: 75KB
Projected Impact:
- Doubling adds ~2-5% bandwidth demand in average cases
- Worst-case scenario: 3.4MB blocks (50% bandwidth increase)
- Mitigation through EIP-7783 and calldata repricing
Computation Factors
Processing Time:
- Average block computation <1 second even on low-end machines
- Bottleneck only exists with poorly scaling opcodes (e.g., MODEXP)
- All DoS vectors addressable through opcode repricing
Risk Assessment and Recommendations
- Storage: Non-critical concern due to hardware scalability
- Bandwidth: Manageable through EIP-7783 with optional calldata cost adjustments
- Computation: Minimal impact with proper opcode pricing
👉 Explore Ethereum scaling solutions
FAQs
Q: Why hasn't the Gas limit increased since 2021?
A: Network stability and hardware decentralization priorities outweighed throughput demands during this period.
Q: What's the worst-case scenario for bandwidth demands?
A: A sustained 3.4MB block size would require 50% more bandwidth, but economically prohibitive for attackers.
Q: How does state growth compare to hardware advancement?
A: Storage tech improves exponentially (~50% cost reduction biennially) while state grows linearly (~30GB annually).
Q: Is computation a limiting factor?
A: Only for specific opcodes that can be repriced; general processing remains efficient.
Conclusion
The analysis supports a 33%-100% Gas limit increase via EIP-7783's gradual mechanism, with storage presenting no fundamental constraints. Bandwidth concerns remain addressable through existing proposals, making higher throughput feasible without compromising network security or decentralization.