Vitalik Buterin Proposes New Update That Will Change the Structure of Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and researcher Toni Wahrstätter have submitted a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-7983) that aims to cap gas usage per transaction.

The proposal includes a protocol-level limit where each transaction can use a maximum of 16.77 million gas (2^24). The aim is to increase the network’s resilience against denial of service (DoS) attacks, provide a more stable network structure, and increase predictability in transaction pricing.

According to the new proposal, transactions will no longer be able to exceed 16.77 million gas on their own, regardless of the block gas limit set by the network. This limit will be applied by Ethereum clients during the transaction verification phase, and transactions exceeding this limit will be considered invalid and will not be included in the transaction pool. Similarly, blocks containing transactions exceeding this limit will also be considered invalid.

The following items stand out in the details of the proposal, which has a “Draft” status on Github:

• Gas Cap: A gas cap of 16.77 million will be applied to all transactions.
• Txpool Validity: Ethereum transactions exceeding this limit will be rejected during the verification phase.
• Block Validity: Blocks containing transactions exceeding the gas limit will be considered invalid.
• Independence: This transaction limit will not be directly related to the block gas limit; blocks may contain higher total gas limits, but no single transaction will exceed 16.77 million.

The justification for the proposal includes three main points:

• Reducing DoS Attacks: Risks such as a single transaction consuming all block gas will be eliminated, thus preserving the balance of the network.
• zkVM Compatibility: Structures that are divided into smaller processes will be more suitable for zero-knowledge proof (zk Proof) systems.
• Parallel Transaction Performance: ETH fixed gas limit will provide more balanced workload distribution in parallel transaction execution.
• According to Buterin and Wahrstätter, the 16.77 million limit is high enough to support both existing DeFi applications and contract deployments, but still restrictive enough to keep system performance predictable and secure.

*This is not investment advice.