Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-7983

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and researcher Toni Wahrstätter have introduced a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-7983) aimed at capping gas usage per transaction.

Proposal Overview

The proposal sets a protocol-level limit where each transaction can use a maximum of 16.77 million gas (2^24). The objectives include enhancing the network’s resilience against denial of service (DoS) attacks, stabilizing the network structure, and promoting predictability in transaction pricing.

Key Features

• Gas Cap: Transactions are restricted to a maximum of 16.77 million gas.
• Transaction Pool Validity: Transactions exceeding this limit will be invalid and rejected during the verification phase.
• Block Validity: Blocks with transactions that exceed the gas limit are also deemed invalid.
• Independence: This limit pertains solely to individual transactions; blocks may allow higher total gas limits.

Justification for the Proposal

The justification is based on three main points:
1. Reducing DoS Attacks: Prevents a single transaction from consuming all block gas, thus maintaining network balance.
2. zkVM Compatibility: Smaller processes are better suited for zero-knowledge proof (zk Proof) systems.
3. Parallel Transaction Performance: A fixed gas limit aids in more balanced workload distribution in parallel execution.

According to Buterin and Wahrstätter, the 16.77 million limit is sufficient to support existing DeFi applications and smart contract deployments while ensuring performance remains predictable and secure.

This is not investment advice.