Vitalik Buterin Explores Strategies to Optimize Block Size

Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of Ethereum, and Toni Wahrstatter, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, are leading the effort to improve Ethereum’s block size.

The project is now taking a rollup-centric approach, which means that plans for handling the growing need for data on the network need to be considered again.

Vitalik Buterin’s Urgent Call and Five Strategies 

Buterin and Wahrstatter clarified on February 5 that the problem needed to be fixed immediately, pointing out that the block size has almost doubled in the past year. This rise is due to more people using rollups and new trends like markings, which need the Ethereum network to have more data.

On Increasing the Block Gas Limit

By:
– Toni
– Vitalik

ELI5
Special thanks to the Starkware team for feedback and data!

Important Takeaways:
## ELI5
The article discusses a proposal to manage Ethereum's block size more efficiently by adjusting the gas limit and the cost of…

— ethresearchbot (@ethresearchbot) February 5, 2024

Both of them have found five different ways to solve this problem. Changing block gas and calldata usage limits should lower the most considerable block size. To control how much computing work can be put into a block, address an important issue.

There’s an easy way to make calldata cost 42 gas per byte instead of 16. For some people, it will mean that apps that depend on call data, like StarkNet, will be less likely to use them. Even though the largest block size would drastically drop for on-chain proofs, they need much of it.

Some tasks should cost more than calldata, so changing the gas pricing model could help balance them. The goal is to keep the network running efficiently so that apps that need calldata are unaffected.

A calldata fee market, similar to how data blobs are handled, is another thing that needs to be thought about. This would let the cost of call data change based on demand, but it would make execution more difficult.

There were also discussions concerning limiting the amount of call data sent per block and creating an “EVM loyalty bonus” for apps that use a lot of call data. Buterin and Wahrstatter stressed the importance of a nuanced method that doesn’t stop new ideas and app development on the Ethereum network.

This is not the first time Buterin has talked about how to use calldata and how much it costs. He suggested reducing the amount of call data per block in 2021 to lower gas costs. He mentioned in January 2024 that the Ethereum gas limit should be raised by 33% to improve network throughput.

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