28-4-2025 – An initiative to enhance Ethereum’s transaction capabilities has emerged from the blockchain’s inner sanctum, with Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist unveiling an ambitious proposal that could reshape the network’s operational landscape.
The proposed enhancement, formally designated as EIP-9698, charts a course for a methodical expansion of Ethereum’s processing capacity, potentially catapulting its transaction throughput to rival that of high-performance competitors. The blueprint envisions a tenfold amplification of the network’s gas limit over a two-year period, commencing around June 2025.
At present, Ethereum’s modest 20 transactions per second could theoretically surge to an impressive 2,000, positioning the network within striking distance of Solana’s operational capacity. This quantum leap would manifest through an increase in the gas limit from 36 million to an unprecedented 3.6 billion, enabling individual blocks to accommodate approximately 6,000 transactions.
The proposal arrives amidst a broader discourse on Ethereum’s scaling strategy, with some industry observers expressing concerns about the current emphasis on layer-2 solutions, which they argue has led to ecosystem fragmentation. Feist, renowned for his contributions to “danksharding”, has crafted the proposal with careful consideration for technical constraints and implementation challenges.
Implementation hinges on client consensus, with the proposal suggesting a deterministic growth schedule that would allow network participants to adapt systematically. The measured approach acknowledges potential challenges, including increased strain on less optimised nodes and extended block propagation times.
This initiative builds upon recent network adjustments, including February’s gas limit increase from 30 million to 36 million. It dovetails with other forthcoming network enhancements, including the anticipated Fusaka hard fork and the Pectra upgrade, scheduled for deployment in late 2025 and May 2025, respectively.
