Ethereum Improvement Proposal 9698 Aims to Increase Gas Limit and TPS

Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist proposed the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 9698 to enable automated growth of the blockchain's gas limit over four years.

• EIP-9698 introduces a deterministic exponential schedule for gas limit increases, enhancing validator efficiency.
• The gas limit could rise from 36 million units to approximately 3.6 billion, facilitating about 6,000 transfers per block and over 2,000 transactions per second, compared to the current 15-20 TPS.
• The activation point is set for Beacon-chain epoch 369017, around June 1.
• The proposal aims to replace the current unpredictable gas limit mechanism reliant on miner/operator voting.
• Client teams will need to implement the code with default settings; manual overrides are permissible.

If adopted, these changes could significantly enhance Ethereum’s performance by 2029 without requiring a hard fork. This development comes amid increased competition from other blockchains offering faster transaction speeds and lower fees.