Proposal to enhance Ethereum's processing power faces mixed opinions

## Increase in gas limit sparks mixed reactions

14% of Ethereum (ETH) validators in the cryptocurrency space agree to raise the gas limit for each block in the network to 60 million.

This change does not require a hard fork and will automatically take effect when more than 50% of validators express support.

What is a validator?

A node that verifies the validity of data recorded on the blockchain. It means an approver, having roles such as validating transaction history, and is rewarded with cryptocurrency for fulfilling that role.

Note that "gas" is the basic unit used to measure the amount of computational effort required to execute transactions and smart contracts on Ethereum.

Each block of Ethereum has a limit on the amount of transactions it can process, known as the "gas limit." When the gas limit increases, the number of transactions each block can process increases, potentially enhancing the processing capacity of Layer 1.

The current gas limit is set at 36 million units. The newly proposed limit is 60 million units, aiming to raise it by about 1.7 times.

Source: gaslimit.pics

According to the gaslimit.pics dashboard created by Ethereum researcher Toni Walshtetter, since mid-May, there has been a gradual increase in both validators supporting an increase to 60 million units and validators supporting a decrease from 36 million units.

The last gas limit increase was made in February 2025, raised from 30 million units to the current 36 million units.

Furthermore, in 2021, it was raised from 15 million units to 30 million units. This proposal has sparked mixed opinions within the Ethereum community.

Supporters argue that raising the cap will reduce fees and expand the transaction processing capacity of Ethereum's main chain. On the other hand, opponents are concerned that it could put a strain on nodes and potentially cause issues with synchronization and network stability.

On the 19th, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin made a proposal to alleviate the load on nodes.

Mr. Buterin proposed a new roadmap that aims to improve scalability while maintaining security and decentralization for Ethereum. It seeks to lower the barriers for individuals to operate nodes.

The main criticism of increasing the L1 gas limit is the concern that it makes operating full nodes difficult.

In the short term, the implementation of 'EIP-4444' which limits the historical data stored by nodes to 36 days, and decentralized historical data storage solutions were proposed as solutions. Furthermore, in the medium term, it is suggested that the storage requirements for nodes be reduced by approximately 50% through "stateless verification."

Stateless means

In blockchain, it refers to a mechanism where nodes verify only the necessary information without holding all state data. This reduces the burden on nodes and improves the scalability and ease of operation of the network.