The Ethereum team will test a fourfold increase in the gas limit.

Ethereum developers are considering a more than fourfold increase in the gas limit on the network as one of the key features of the planned Fusaka hard fork.

The proposal EIP-9678 presented during the ACDE call provides for testing a parameter with an upper limit of 150 million units. In February, Ethereum validators supported raising the gas limit from 30 million. According to Ycharts, the value increased by ~20% to 35.95 million.

“To align the default client settings and keep this as a priority, we have drafted the EIP. It is somewhat unconventional, but not unprecedented (see EIP-7840). We plan to merge it early next week for the upcoming ACDE,” commented core developer Tim Beiko.

The proposal will require changes to other EIPs for Fusaka, but the scope of the hard fork will not change, he noted.

Regarding the need to raise the gas limit, developers led by Sofia Gold noted that there is significant interest in scaling the execution level of L1. However, without the implementation of new features, work in this direction will require client teams time to identify and fix bugs. Therefore, it made sense to formalize this as an EIP and include it in the hard fork, the experts added.

The Pectra upgrade is scheduled for May 7. The activation of Fusaka is expected to take place at the end of 2025.

The developers also discussed the issues raised by Vitalik Buterin’s proposal to transition the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to an open RISС-V architecture. First and foremost, this raised the question of the feasibility of continuing work on the improvement of EVM Object Forma (EOF).

“There is some understanding that EOF may not turn out to be a long-term runtime environment. Regardless of whether it will be RISC-V or another solution, part of our discussions should be: should we move forward with EOF,” emphasized Beiko.

Let’s remind that in March there were changes in the management of the Ethereum Foundation. After the rearrangements in management, the organization shifted its focus to user experience and L1 scaling issues.