A new update proposal has come from Vitalik Buterin that will change the structure of Ethereum!

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and researcher Toni Wahrstätter have proposed a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-7983) aimed at capping gas usage per transaction.

The proposal includes a protocol-level limit where each transaction can use a maximum of 16.77 million gas (2^24). The aim is to increase the network’s resilience against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, provide a more stable network structure, and enhance predictability in transaction fees.

According to the new proposal, transactions will no longer exceed 16.77 million gas on their own, regardless of the block gas limit set by the network. This limit will be enforced by Ethereum clients during the transaction validation phase, and transactions exceeding this limit will be deemed invalid and will not be included in the transaction pool. Similarly, blocks containing transactions that exceed this limit will also be considered invalid.

The following items stand out in the details of the proposal that is in “Draft” status on Github:

• Gas Upper Limit: A gas upper limit of 16.77 million will be applied to all transactions.
• Txpool Validity: Ethereum transactions exceeding this limit will be rejected during the validation phase.
• Block Validity: Blocks containing transactions that exceed the gas limit will be considered invalid.
• Independence: This transaction limit will not be directly related to the block gas limit; blocks may contain a higher total gas limit, but a single transaction cannot exceed 16.77 million.

There are three main points among the justifications for the proposal:

• Reducing DoS Attacks: Risks such as a single transaction consuming all block gas will be eliminated, thereby maintaining the balance of the network.
• zkVM Compatibility: Structures divided into smaller transactions will become more suitable for zero-knowledge proof (zk Proof) systems.
• Parallel Processing Performance: The fixed gas limit for ETH will provide a more balanced workload distribution in parallel transaction execution.
• According to Buterin and Wahrstätter, the limit of 16.77 million is high enough to support both current DeFi applications and contract deployments; however, it is still a restrictive level that will keep system performance predictable and secure.