Ethereum crossed a new threshold in execution capacity as its mainnet block gas limit reached 60 million, the highest level the network has seen in four years.
Data tracker Gas Limit Pics showed that in November, over 513,000 validators signaled a 60 million gas limit, pushing the Ethereum network over the threshold needed for the protocol to begin drifting the gas limit upward.
A higher gas limit allows Ethereum to fit more work into each block, including swaps, token transfers and smart contract calls. In practice, that can ease congestion during busy periods and help the network process more activity at the base layer.
As more than 513,000 validators transitioned from the 45 million ceiling to the higher 60 million configuration, Ethereum’s effective block size began to increase automatically, thereby raising the throughput across the network’s base layer.
Over half a million validators signal a gas limit of 60 million. Source: GasLimit.Pics
The effort to “pump the gas” on Ethereum
In March 2024, Ethereum developers initiated an effort to increase the network’s gas limit, claiming that the change can help scale Ethereum.
Ethereum developers Eric Connor and Mariano Conti created an initiative called Pump The Gas to raise the Ethereum gas limit, which they said would reduce the transaction fees on the layer-1 blockchain.
The duo called on solo stakers, client teams, pools and community members to push the agenda.
In December 2024, the movement gained momentum as validators started signaling an increase in gas limits. The community rallied to increase the maximum amount of gas allowed for transactions to be included in a single Ethereum block.
The gas limit increase comes ahead of an upcoming major network upgrade, called Fusaka, that aims to improve Ethereum’s scalability. On Oct. 29, the upgrade made its way into the Hoodi testnet, the final step before its mainnet debut on Dec. 3.
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Ethereum community says the 60 million gas limit is “only the beginning”
Ethereum leaders say the jump to a 60 million gas limit is just the start of a broader expansion of the network’s execution capacity.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter credited teams, researchers and ecosystem contributors for coordinating the push.
“Just a year after the community started pushing for higher gas limits, Ethereum is now running with a 60M block gas limit. That’s a 2× increase in a single year — and it’s only the beginning,” Wahrstätter wrote on X.
Source: Vitalik Buterin
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin echoed the sentiment. He said that the network can expect continued growth over the next year. However, this would be in a more targeted and less uniform way.
He floated a future where the network increases overall capacity while making certain inefficient operations more expensive.
He also pointed toward a more refined form of scaling, which involves larger blocks but smarter pricing to ensure that the network can expand safely without introducing new problems.
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