EIP-7790: Controlled Gas Limit Increase Guidelines

This proposal specifies specific parameters for the controlled gas limit increase strategy outlined in EIP-7783, including block number to start the increase, initial gas limit, rate of increase per block, and gas limit cap.

Abstract

This proposal provides parameter recommendations for implementing the controlled gas limit increase strategy in EIP-7783.

Motivation

The motivation for this proposal is to define practical and balanced parameters for Ethereum's gas limit increase strategy to achieve predictable and stable network scaling. While EIP-7783 defines the mechanism, there is still a need to establish the values needed for its implementation based on real-world conditions.

Specification

Proposed Parameters

The parameters for the controlled gas limit increase strategy are:

• Block Number Start (blockNumStart): 21792420
  The block number at which the gas limit increase begins. this is february 7, 2024.

• Initial Gas Limit (initialGasLimit): 30_000_000
  The initial gas limit at blockNumStart represents the current default gas limit of the Ethereum network, set to 30 million gas.

• Rate of Increase (r): 6
  The gas limit will increase by 6 gas per block. This results in a slow growth rate culminating to reaching the cap in approximately 694 days.

• Gas Limit Cap (gasLimitCap): 60_000_000
  The maximum gas limit is capped at 60 million gas, ensuring that the gas limit will not increase indefinitely and will prevent the network from being overwhelmed by excessively large blocks.

Rationale

Starting Block Number

The chosen block number (21792420) provides ample time to discuss and implement the gas limit increase strategy, additionally, it allows to happen with or slightly before the pectra hard fork.

Initial Gas Limit

The initial gas limit is set to match the current default gas limit of 30_000_000.

Rate of Increase

A rate of 6 gas per block is chosen to triple the gas limit in approximately 47 months, which is equivalent to almost 2 years.

Gas Limit Cap

• The gas limit cap of 60_000_000 provides a safeguard against the gas limit growing beyond what the network can safely handle.

Backwards Compatibility

These parameters do not require any protocol changes or hard forks. They are fully backward compatible with the current Ethereum network architecture.

Security Considerations

• The gradual nature of the gas limit increase prevents sudden surges in block size that could destabilize the network.
• The cap on the gas limit ensures that blocks do not become excessively large, which could lead to performance degradation or DOS vulnerabilities.
• Validators retain the ability to make adjustments to the gas limit in response to potential network attacks or performance issues.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0 1.0 Universal.