The Ethereum development team claims that a reduction of 15–33% in layer-1 transaction costs is possible with a gas cap increase of $40 million.
Ethereum developers have started a new project to increase the long-static gas limit of the blockchain network. They believe this modification would help Ethereum grow.
In an effort to lower layer 1 transaction costs, key Ethereum developer Eric Connor and former MakerDAO director of smart contracts Mariano Conti launched a website on March 20 dubbed “pump the gas” to increase the Ethereum gas cap from 30 million to 40 million.
“We are appealing to individual stakers, client teams, pools, and community members to lend a hand,” Connor said in a March 19 post on X, before going on to say, “This may lead to a 15% to 33% decrease in layer-1 transaction costs.”
From X, Ethereum users, stakers, and DeFi investors have begun to rally around the #pumpthegas hashtag. Additionally, Conti said that on March 20, a validator for the Rocket Pool had suggested a block with a cap of $40 million in gas.
In recent months, there has been an increasing number of voices advocating for an increase to the Ethereum gas cap. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, proposed increasing the gas limit from 30 million to 40 million in January. The current limit has been in place since August 2021.
Responding, Base contributor Jesse Pollak said that he “highly supports” raising the gas cap for Ethereum to 40 or 45 million. “All parties will benefit from this, and we have the network headroom,” he continued.
Each block of Ethereum can only spend up to a certain amount of gas to execute transactions or smart contracts. Gas refers to the Ethereum cost that is necessary to execute a smart contract or make a transaction on the network.
Gas costs are established in advance for each activity, and contracts contain gas limits that cannot be exceeded during execution, according to the website. This stops harmful contracts from using too many network resources or creating endless cycles.
“A 33% increase in the gas block limit enables Layer 1 Ethereum to process 33% more daily transaction traffic,” the document read.
Data blobs, which were added in the Dencun update with EIP-4844, significantly lower layer-2 transaction prices, but they do not affect layer-1 rates, according to the report. “Additionally, blobs and a gas cap increase may help scale both L1 and L2 Ethereum,” it said.
Wallets