Ethereum Developers Tackle Free DA Issue with Four Proposed Solutions

Ethereum developers have been engaged in discussions surrounding the "Free DA Issue" and potential mitigation strategies arising from EIP-7886, which introduces Delayed Execution. This proposal modifies the verification process, allowing validators to authenticate block validity through prechecks such as nonce and balance before the transaction is fully executed. However, this change has led to a scenario where invalid transactions can occupy on-chain data availability resources without compensating validators, a situation referred to as the "Free DA Issue."

For instance, if Transaction A depletes Account B's balance, causing Transaction B from B to fail to pay Gas, the data from Transaction B is still written to the block and processed by validators but without payment. This results in invalid transactions occupying on-chain data availability resources, leaving validators uncompensated. This issue not only causes network congestion but also raises concerns about economic injustice within the network.

To address this problem, the article proposes four potential solutions. The first is optimistic verification, which involves verifying transactions optimistically before they are fully executed. The second solution is pre-validation and pre-charge, where transactions are validated and pre-charged before execution. The third solution is pre-charge entities, which involves entities pre-charging for data writing. The fourth solution is execution layer no-op, which ensures that the cost of data writing is covered through pre-deduction fees, block reorganization, or state rollback.

These proposed solutions aim to prevent network congestion and economic injustice by ensuring that invalid transactions do not occupy on-chain data availability resources without compensation. By implementing these strategies, Ethereum developers hope to maintain the efficiency and fairness of the network, addressing the challenges posed by the "Free DA Issue" arising from EIP-7886.