Ethereum Developers Plan 400% Gas Limit Increase for Fusaka Hard Fork

Ethereum core developers are actively considering a significant increase in the network's gas limit as part of the upcoming Fusaka hard fork. This proposal, outlined in Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 9678, introduced by Sophia Gold of the Ethereum Foundation, suggests raising the gas limit to 150 million. This move is seen as a key feature for the Fusaka hard fork, which is scheduled to follow the Pectra upgrade, expected to go live in May. The developers aim to test this increase to ensure the network can handle higher transaction volumes and to identify any potential issues that may arise.

The motivation behind this increase is to scale layer 1 execution, which could be achieved by implementing new features. However, this requires careful coordination and testing by execution layer developers. The developers anticipate encountering bugs at higher gas limits, which will necessitate time and effort from client developers to test and fix. By including this change in a hard fork, the developers hope to commit to this increase and ensure that all clients update their defaults by the time Fusaka goes live.

During the last All Core Devs Execution (ACDE) meeting, there were discussions to make the gas limit increase a “key feature” of Fusaka. Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko stated in an April 24 meeting summary that to align on client defaults and keep this as a priority, an EIP has been drafted. Beiko mentioned that it is a bit unconventional but not unprecedented, and the plan is to get it merged early next week and formally SFI it on the next ACDE. Beiko also noted that as this work continues, changes that need to be made in-protocol to support a higher gas limit will be identified, implying the addition of more EIPs to Fusaka, even though the fork scope is final.

The current gas limit, which was raised to around 30 million in August 2021, was further increased to just under 36 million on February 4. This increase was supported by Ethereum validators, who agreed to raise the maximum amount of gas used for transactions in a single Ethereum block. The developers believe that having an EIP to coordinate client defaults will help keep this a priority and ensure a smooth transition.

The next Ethereum upgrade, Pectra, is scheduled to go live on the mainnet in May, with Fusaka potentially going online in late 2025. The developers are committed to making this gas limit increase a priority ahead of the Fusaka hard fork, ensuring that the network can handle increased transaction volumes and maintain its efficiency and reliability.