Vitalik Buterin Calls for Higher Ethereum Gas Limit to Cut Fees

Highlights:

• Vitalik Buterin urges increasing Ethereum L1 gas capacity to support transactions and application development on L2 networks.
• Expanding Ethereum L1 will lower the cost used for bypass transactions across L2 transfers and mass exits during network disruptions.
• The Pectra upgrade will improve scalability and allow validator gas limit votes.

Vitalik Buterin has indicated that there is a need to expand Ethereum’s Layer 1 gas capacity. He argues that increasing the gas limit will support transaction inclusion and application development. Most activity now occurs on Layer 2, but Layer 1 must still function efficiently.

Reasons to have higher L1 gas limits even in an L2-heavy Ethereumhttps://t.co/BMFhzoO8bE

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 14, 2025

The gas limit controls the maximum computational work within a block. A higher limit allows more transactions and will permit complex operations. Recently, the Ethereum network increased its gas limit from 30 million to 36 million. This change raised capacity by 20%.

Buterin believes further increases are necessary, and improving efficiency in Ethereum clients and reducing history storage might help achieve this. In addition, the adoption of stateless clients may also contribute to better efficiency. His analysis compares current gas requirements with ideal scenarios.

Expanding Ethereum to Lower Costs

Expanding Ethereum’s Layer 1 capacity, according to his analysis, could reduce transaction costs. Buterin’s calculations show that bypass transactions remain expensive. These transactions are used to bypass censorship on Layer 2. Currently, they cost around 4 dollars and 50 cents at prevailing gas prices. He suggests that a 4.5 times increase in Layer 1 capacity could lower these costs.

Cross Layer 2 asset movements also involve high costs. Transferring high-volume assets or NFTs currently costs about 14 dollars per operation. If Ethereum scales by 5.5 to 6 times, these costs could drop to 28 cents per transaction.

Vitalik Buterin pointed out mass Layer 2 exits as a challenge in the ecosystem as users move assets from Layer 2 to Layer 1 during network disruptions. Buterin’s estimates show that exits requiring 120,000 gas per user would enable between 7.56 million and 32.4 million clients to withdraw assets in a month. If Ethereum optimizes these operations, a lower gas cost per exit could allow more efficient withdrawals.

Token issuance also faces difficulties. Many new ERC20 tokens launch on Layer 2 but changes in governance is a risk to them. If an upgrade is hostile, an attacker could mint unlimited tokens. Buterin suggests issuing tokens on Layer 1 to reduce this risk.

He used the Railgun token as an example to elaborate. Deploying this token required over 1.6 million gas. Reducing issuance costs to 120,000 gas per transaction would still make token deployment expensive. A scaling factor of 18 times may be needed to ensure affordable token launches.

Operations involving keystore wallets also consume gas. Frequent key updates require 50,000 gas per operation. Buterin estimates that a 3.3 times increase in capacity would help. Optimizing the process could reduce costs to 7,500 gas per update.

Layer 2 proof submissions are another cost-heavy operation. These proofs maintain the connection between Layer 2 and Layer 1. Currently, they impose high costs and limit the number of viable Layer 2 networks. Advanced aggregation protocols could lower costs to 10,000 gas per proof. A tenfold increase in Layer 1 capacity would make frequent updates affordable.

Future of Ethereum and Key Upgrades

Increasing Layer 1 gas capacity helps secure Ethereum and ensures it remains decentralized. Buterin argues that it will ensure users can send transactions without relying fully on Layer 2. He stated, “L1 must have enough space so users can send bypass transactions even if an L2 censors many users at once.”

Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap focuses on Layer 2 solutions, but Layer 1 must still function effectively. Transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet have declined recently. Fee revenue fell below 1 million dollars for the first time since September.

The upcoming Pectra upgrade may improve scalability. It plans to increase the number of blobs per block from three to six. Pectra will also introduce a mechanism where Ethereum validators vote on gas limit adjustments.