Vitalik Buterin , Ethereum co-founder, finalised Ethereum Improvement Proposal 7983 (EIP-7983), which significantly reduces the gas limit to prevent DDoS attacks. EIP-7983 was proposed in late June, but had to wait for Buterin to sign it off. The imposed gas limit will place a cap of 16.77 million gas usage, which is 2^24. Buterin wishes to stabilise the network and make transactions more predictable. The gas limit was initially meant to be 30 million. The Ethereum community has debated the topic vigorously and has arrived at a new figure of roughly 16 million. Toni Wahrstatter, an Ethereum researcher, co-authored EIP-7983 and released the final version on GitHub. Any transactions that exceed the 16.77 million threshold will be cancelled. The new protocol will prevent entities from monopolizing entire blocks. EIP-7983 will introduce numerous enhancements to the Ethereum blockchain, including DDoS protection, improved zero-knowledge Virtual Machine design, and more equitable distribution of gas fees within each block. Validators may be able to set their gas limits, but will need to adhere to the 16 million global limit. A transaction that exceeds that amount will receive an error code. The functioning of this new protocol will be implemented in the EVM. Transactions, meanwhile, wait on the txpool before being processed. It is at this stage that transactions can be filtered out if they exceed the 16 million limit. The economic benefits to the Ethereum ecosystem are currently minimal. A simple back-of-the-envelope analysis reveals that an average gas price of 0.2, with an ETH price of $2,500, utilizing a maximum transaction cap of 16.77, would result in a cost of $11. The impact of EIP-7983 would largely affect future transactions, adding more predictability for developers to know in advance what a transaction cost would entail. Vitalik Buterin has expressed a desire to improve the reliability and security of Ethereum. He envisions an ecosystem that is more straightforward, like Bitcoin, so that there are fewer bugs in the code. At this point, Ethereum is at risk of developing clusters of legacy code that could increase the likelihood of a fault. Hackers may attempt to exploit such vulnerabilities to compromise the network or even steal customers’ funds. Ethereum is well-designed in terms of modularity, but could benefit from a serious cleanup to avoid a disaster. A critical vulnerability exists in the Ethereum system, where a single transaction could completely consume a block’s gas limit. EIP-7983 addresses this flaw to decentralize the blockchain further and enhance its security. A DDoS attack could destabilize the blockchain by creating an uneven number of transactions, adding to bottlenecks in the system, and putting users’ funds at risk. EIP-7983 could be part of Vitalik Buterin’s vision for a minimalist Ethereum, as it allows simple transactions to coexist with complex transactions without the latter dominating the blockchain. EIP-7983, therefore, contributes to a more harmonious blockchain with less bottlenecks and more opportunities for regular users to make simple transactions without exorbitant gas fees. The Pectra upgrade marked a significant milestone for Ethereum’s price, leading to an improvement in trading activity after its implementation. Transactions have reached levels comparable to those of 2021. This is a promising sign for both crypto traders and Ethereum developers. Many developers believe that the price improvements are directly related to the Pectra upgrade. There have been improvements in US regulations and corporate treasuries emerging regularly. There have even been Ethereum corporate treasuries, indicating a renewed sense of optimism for the crypto token. Ethereum traders are particularly interested in two major things: faster transaction speeds and lower gas fees.
