Ethereum Reconsiders Raising Gas Limit to 60 Million — Scaling Path Comes Into Focus

·

In recent years, the perception of Ethereum’s transaction throughput has undergone a quiet revolution. Long criticized for sluggish performance and sky-high fees, the network is now showing signs of a more scalable, efficient future. A key part of this transformation lies in a simple yet powerful mechanism: increasing the Gas Limit.

Once capped at just 15 million, Ethereum’s Gas Limit has already risen to 36 million — and now, a growing number of validators are signaling support for an increase to 60 million. This adjustment could push Ethereum’s peak transactions per second (TPS) from around 15 to approximately 60, marking a fourfold improvement in throughput without requiring a hard fork or major protocol overhaul.

What Is Gas Limit and Why Does It Matter?

At its core, Gas Limit refers to the maximum amount of computational work a single Ethereum block can handle. Every transaction — whether it's transferring ETH, interacting with a smart contract, or minting an NFT — consumes gas. The higher the Gas Limit, the more transactions a block can process.

Think of it like a delivery truck:

👉 Discover how blockchain scalability is evolving in real time.

Unlike Bitcoin, which fixes block size, Ethereum allows dynamic adjustments. Under current consensus rules, validators can increase or decrease the Gas Limit by up to 1/1024 (about 0.1%) per block compared to its parent. This means that through gradual, decentralized agreement, the network can organically adapt its capacity — no system-wide upgrade needed.

As long as a critical mass of validators consistently "vote" for higher limits by setting them in their produced blocks, the network will converge on the new standard.

No Hard Fork Needed: How the Upgrade Works

One of the most underappreciated strengths of Ethereum’s post-merge architecture is its ability to evolve without disruptive upgrades. Raising the Gas Limit is a perfect example.

Because this parameter is adjustable within existing protocol rules, there's no need for:

Instead, validators simply configure their nodes to propose blocks with higher gas limits. When enough participants do so — currently around 15% are already signaling support for 60 million — the network naturally follows.

With over 1 million active validators, Ethereum maintains a high degree of decentralization. However, this also means change must be cautious and consensus-driven. Not all nodes have identical hardware; some may struggle with larger blocks, leading to propagation delays or missed attestations.

Still, research from teams like ethpandaops shows promising results: under simulated 60 million Gas Limit conditions, 90% of blocks are discovered within 1016 milliseconds — well within acceptable performance thresholds.

The Trade-Off: Lower Fees, Fewer Validator Rewards

Here’s where things get interesting: higher Gas Limit doesn’t mean higher rewards for validators — quite the opposite.

Since the implementation of EIP-1559, most transaction fees (the base fee) are burned rather than paid to validators. Validators now earn primarily from priority fees — tips users add to speed up their transactions.

When the network has more capacity:

So why would any validator support this change?

Because they’re prioritizing network health over personal gain. By opting into higher gas limits, these validators help make Ethereum faster, cheaper, and more accessible — even if it means earning less.

This subtle shift reflects a maturing ecosystem: one where incentives align not just with profit, but with long-term sustainability and user experience.

FAQ: Common Questions About Ethereum’s Gas Limit Increase

Q: Will raising the Gas Limit make Ethereum as fast as Solana?

A: Not yet. While Solana achieves thousands of TPS through centralized infrastructure and unique consensus design, Ethereum prioritizes decentralization and security. A 60 million Gas Limit might get Ethereum to ~60 TPS under peak conditions — far below Solana’s theoretical maximum, but significantly better than before — and without sacrificing trust assumptions.

Q: Is there a risk of centralization with larger blocks?

A: Yes — but it’s being managed carefully. Larger blocks require more bandwidth and storage. If only high-end machines can keep up, smaller validators may drop out, threatening decentralization. That’s why increases are gradual and data-driven. Current estimates suggest the network can safely handle up to 150 million Gas under ideal conditions.

Q: Does this fix high gas prices during NFT mints?

A: It helps. While base fees depend on demand, higher capacity reduces congestion spikes. During events like popular NFT drops, more available gas means smoother transaction inclusion and less bidding wars — translating into lower effective costs for users.

👉 See how next-gen blockchain performance is reshaping user expectations.

The Road Ahead: Ambitious Proposals and Realistic Constraints

Beyond the 60 million target, some in the community are thinking even bigger. EIP-9698, a controversial proposal, suggests raising the Gas Limit to 3.6 billion over four years — aiming for around 2000 TPS.

While technically conceivable on powerful hardware, such a jump would likely exclude most retail validators. Today, Ethereum has over a million nodes; many high-performance chains have fewer than 100. That difference isn’t accidental — it reflects a deliberate trade-off between speed and decentralization.

Moreover, block propagation constraints limit how large blocks can grow. On current networks, 66% of nodes must fully receive and verify a block (including blob data) within 4 seconds for consensus stability. Testnet modeling places the theoretical safe上限 (upper limit) at about 150 million Gas under today’s architecture.

So while EIP-9698 captures imagination, it’s unlikely to materialize soon — unless new node tiering models emerge.

Could Tiered Nodes Be the Future?

One potential path forward is a dual-node architecture:

This model could allow massive scalability while preserving accessibility for smaller participants — similar to how rollups offload computation while keeping security anchored on Ethereum.

Such innovations wouldn’t replace Gas Limit increases; they’d complement them.

Conclusion: Ethereum Is Getting Faster — And More Inclusive

The narrative around Ethereum has shifted. Once labeled the “rich man’s chain” due to exorbitant fees, it’s now becoming more efficient and affordable — not because of market downturns alone, but because of real technical progress.

Raising the Gas Limit to 60 million is more than a number change. It’s a signal:

And with further upgrades like Pectra, Verkle trees, and danksharding on the horizon, this is only the beginning.

👉 Stay ahead of Ethereum’s evolution with real-time insights and tools.

Core Keywords:

Final word count: ~1,080 words