• Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist has proposed EIP-9698, which would gradually raise the network's gas limit by 100 times over two years, potentially boosting transactions per second to 2,000.
  • The proposal aims to improve Ethereum’s scalability at the base layer, while addressing concerns over node stress and network optimization timelines.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist has introduced a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) aimed at significantly enhancing the network’s transaction processing capacity. The proposal, EIP-9698, was put forward on April 27 and suggests a "deterministic gas limit growth schedule" beginning around June 1.

Under the proposal, Ethereum's gas limit would gradually increase by a factor of 10 over approximately two years, covering around 164,250 epochs. A final tenfold increase would follow, theoretically enabling the network to process up to 2,000 transactions per second (TPS). Currently, Ethereum occasionally handles up to 20 TPS during periods dominated by simple transactions.

Feist explained the rationale behind the proposed changes, stating,

“By introducing a predictable exponential growth pattern as a client default, this EIP encourages a sustainable and transparent gas limit trajectory, aligned with expected advancements in hardware and protocol efficiency.”

For the proposal to take effect, approval from Ethereum clients is required.

If implemented, EIP-9698 would expand the gas limit from 36 million to 3.6 billion, potentially allowing around 6,000 transactions to fit into a single block. This move would help Ethereum better compete with other blockchain networks such as Solana, which currently processes between 800 to 1,050 non-vote TPS and claims a theoretical capacity of 65,000 TPS.

Feist acknowledged that the proposed rapid increase could place stress on less-optimized nodes and lead to longer block propagation times. However, he emphasized that “the exponential schedule with very gradual increments per epoch gives node operators and developers ample time to adapt and optimize.”

The proposal follows a recent gas limit increase from 30 million to 36 million in February, the first adjustment since the London hard fork in August 2021, which had raised the limit from 15 million to 30 million.

In parallel, Ethereum developers are exploring another proposal, EIP-9678, which suggests a fourfold gas limit increase as part of the upcoming Fusaka hard fork, anticipated for late 2025. Meanwhile, the network’s next major upgrade, Pectra, is scheduled to go live on the mainnet in May.

EIP-9698 represents the latest initiative to improve Ethereum’s base layer scalability amid ongoing debates about the effectiveness of its layer-2 scaling solutions, which some critics argue have led to ecosystem fragmentation and a diminished user experience.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah