- Thanks to Feist, a 100-fold increase in the gas limits proposes to increase the data throughput from Ethereum to 2,000 TPs.
- His proposal EIP-9698 provides for a gradual increase in the gas limits to optimize the scalability of the basic layer of Ethereum.
Ethereum could soon experience a big change if a new proposal to ground. The researcher thanks to Feist has presented a plan to gradually increase the Ethereum gas limits by 100 times over four years. The proposed upgrade aims to significantly increase the transaction throughput of the network and at the same time give developers time to adapt. If this is implemented, Ethereum could process up to 2,000 transactions per second and thus close the performance gap to faster blockchains.
EIP-9698 proposes a predictable gradual growth of the gas limits
On April 27, Feist presented the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) -9698, which proposes a “deterministic gas limit growth plan”, which is scheduled to begin around June 1, 2025. According to the proposal, Ethereum’s gas limit would increase by a factor of 10 every two years – around 164,250 epochs – and in four years to hundred times. The gas limit would increase from currently 36 million to an incredible 3.6 billion.
Feist wrote that a predictable, exponential growth pattern would match the expected progress in hardware and protocol efficiency. He argued that this structured approach would create clarity and transparency for developers and node operators. Ethereum customers would vote on the adoption of the growth plan and thus ensure a consensus in the entire network.
The researcher admitted potential risks, such as stress for less optimized nodes and longer block distribution times. Feist emphasized, however, that grades would gradually leave enough time for infrastructure adjustments.
Developer Fabrice Cheng noted Anthat the change could increase the capacity of Ethereum to around 2,000 transactions per second, which brings closer to competitors such as Solana, which is currently overcome between 800 and 1,050 TPS.
Higher throughput of the base layer is difficult to do but feasible
The proposal comes at a time when Ethereum developers focus more on the scalability of Layer 1. Recently, Feist, together with Sophia Gold, Toni Wahrstätter, Carl Beek and Alex Stokes, proposed to increase the gas limit at the upcoming Fusaka-Hardfork via EIP-7935. Fusaka is expected to fall by the end of 2025.
The gas limit is currently 36 million, compared to 30 million at the beginning of this year. In 2015 it was 5,000. After “The Merge” 2022 it stabilized at 30 million and then climbed. Although L2 tools such as Optimism, Arbitrum and Base manage most of the network activity, scaling the basic layer is still a problem.
Daily change in the average Ethereum gas limits in the past five years. Source: Ycharts
Critics have pointed out that Ethereum’s Rollup-Center Roadmap is fragmentation of the system and relying too much on centralized sequencers. Feist’s proposal is a different approach – to improve the Mainset directly. It will enable more transactions and complex Smart Contract versions per block and thus make Ethereum more competitive.
In the meantime, the gas fees are still very low, about 1-2 Gwei, so that the demand for block space according to the proto danksharding (EIP-4844) and L2 migration has decreased. EIP-9698 is a clear signal to re-invest in the base layer without giving up the L2 strategy.
Feist said that the rapid increase in the gas limits was a technical challenge, but the proposed schedule allowed developers and knot operators to keep up with the changes.
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