Ethereum Developers Launch ‘Pump the Gas’ Initiative to Increase Gas Limit

• Ethereum’s ‘Pump the Gas’ initiative, proposed by co-founder Vitalik Buterin, aims to enhance network capacity by increasing the gas limit by 33%.
• Despite the initiative gaining support, concerns about increased blockchain state size and potential network vulnerabilities remain.

A recent report by CNF highlighted that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a 33% increase in the gas limit to enhance network capacity. This move could potentially reduce transaction costs, which currently average around $1.89 per transaction, with higher costs for more complex operations. In response, Ethereum developers have launched the ‘Pump the Gas’ initiative, seeking to raise the blockchain network’s long-static gas limit. This change is argued to be a scalable solution for Ethereum.

The Ethereum Average Gas Limit Chart, a historical daily record, clearly shows fluctuations in the network’s gas limit.

Support for the initiative is growing, as evidenced by a tweet from Eric.Eth. The #pumpthegas hashtag is gaining traction among Ethereum users, stakers, and DeFi investors. Notably, a Rocket Pool validator proposed a block with a 40 million gas limit on March 20, 2024.

Today, @nanexcool and I are launching an effort to help raise the Ethereum gas limit from 30mn to 40mn

This can result in a 15-33% reduction in L1 tx fees

We are calling on solo stakers, client teams, pools and community members to help#pumpthegas https://t.co/TYoyI35cle

— eric.eth (@econoar) March 19, 2024

However, there is opposition within the community. Venture investor and Ethereum advocate Evan Van Ness expressed reservations, citing the recent EIP-4844 implementation that already raised the block size. He argues that raising the mainnet gas limit now may not be prudent.

I’m not in favor of raising mainnet gas limit *today* as 4844 just raised the block size

But I see attacks on two Ethereum heroes @nanexcool and @econoar

That’s not cool. You can disagree without making it personal https://t.co/6J0bOik3Sb

— Evan Van Ness 🧉 (@evan_van_ness) March 20, 2024

The concerns extend beyond mere opposition. Increasing the gas limit could result in heightened loads on network hardware and raise the potential risk of network spam and attacks. Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden has voiced concerns about the proposed increase.

He points out that it would expand the size of the blockchain state, which includes account balances and smart contract data. Van der Wijden warned that accessing and modifying this data could become increasingly slower, and highlighted the lack of concrete solutions for state growth.

Currently, Ethereum (ETH) is priced at $3,517, marking a 9.12% increase over the past day.

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