Ethereum could see a dramatic boost in capacity if a newly proposed plan by researcher Dankrad Feist moves forward.
His idea, outlined in EIP-9698, suggests automating gas limit increases on an exponential schedule, aiming for a hundredfold expansion over four years starting in mid-2025.
Rather than manual adjustments, Feist proposes predictable tenfold jumps every two years. If adopted, the gas limit would eventually climb from today’s 36 million to 3.6 billion, potentially allowing Ethereum to process around 2,000 transactions per second, according to developer Fabrice Cheng.
However, Feist admits that scaling this way won’t come without challenges — slower block propagation and pressure on weaker nodes could emerge. Yet, he believes that gradual growth would give enough time for the network to adapt without compromising stability.
The proposal comes at a time when Ethereum is exploring multiple ways to expand capacity. Separately, researchers have suggested raising the gas limit to 150 million during the Fusaka hard fork later this year.
Despite Ethereum’s success, its base layer remains relatively slow compared to newer chains like Solana and Sui. While Layer 2 solutions such as Optimism and Arbitrum have eased congestion, critics argue heavy reliance on rollups risks fragmentation and centralization, especially with many depending on centralized sequencers.
Boosting the Layer 1 performance directly could help Ethereum stay competitive — offering high throughput without sacrificing decentralization, a key advantage it still holds over faster but less secure rivals.
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