Limit the maximum gas consumption for a single transaction to 16.77 million gas. Can the new proposal EIP-7983 solve the resource allocation problem in Ethereum?

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

In the context of Ethereum's mainnet facing uneven execution efficiency and resource scheduling pressure, the EIP-7983 proposal put forward by Vitalik Buterin and Toni Wahrstaetter has entered the community discussion phase. This proposal advocates for a hard gas limit for each transaction, specifically set at 16,777,216 gas (i.e., 2²⁴), to enhance network stability and execution efficiency.

This idea has been explored in proposals such as EIP-7825, where developers attempted to introduce resource boundaries to lay the groundwork for Ethereum's modular development and performance optimization.

What is EIP-7983?

Currently, Ethereum allows a single transaction to theoretically use the entire block's gas. While this design is flexible, it may lead to issues such as resource concentration and uneven node load during transaction execution, affecting overall performance. EIP-7983 aims to limit the maximum gas usage for a single transaction to prevent any single transaction from consuming too many network resources. Once the hard limit of 16,777,216 gas is set, any transaction exceeding this limit will be rejected during block validation.

The core idea of this proposal is to set a limit that forces some extremely large transactions to be split, thereby avoiding excessive resource consumption by a single transaction. This restriction does not change the total gas capacity of the block and does not involve modifications to consensus rules; it merely introduces a limiting condition during transaction execution. Based on this, if a transaction exceeds this limit before entering the block, it will be rejected during the validation phase.

For execution environments that rely on parallel computing, such as zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVM) and future multi-threaded execution models, this limit helps avoid extreme transactions from slowing down the entire block processing flow. In the logic of the execution layer, this restriction is closer to a "resource usage specification," allowing each transaction to be more evenly divided while keeping the total amount unchanged, facilitating overall network scheduling and execution.

The Practical Effects and Potential Issues of EIP-7983

By setting a gas limit for a single transaction, the EIP-7983 proposal aims to reduce the risk of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks caused by extreme transactions while enhancing the predictability of the overall execution process. For the operating environment, this limit helps simplify the validator execution logic and alleviates the pressure caused by concentrated resource consumption.

This proposal aligns with Ethereum's ongoing modular architecture, zkVM integration, and L2 scaling paths. As large transactions are forced to split, this design is expected to enhance Ethereum's underlying adaptability to parallel processing, further supporting multi-layer computing architectures. From an implementation perspective, EIP-7983 does not involve changes to consensus rules or protocol layers; the main impact is that clients, wallets, and development tools will need to update transaction construction and interface display methods to adapt to the new limiting logic.

The constraints introduced by this proposal in the execution layer have sparked some discussions. Some advanced applications, such as contract deployment and complex DeFi operations, may require additional transaction splitting, leading to increased user interaction complexity. Additionally, differences in gas display and handling across different platforms may initially lead to understanding costs and inconsistent usage. More critically, the denial-of-service attacks that this proposal addresses primarily occur during the transaction execution phase and are not directly related to the manipulation of transaction ordering in the memory pool using high gas transactions. Therefore, it is more inclined to limit resource overload on the node side rather than targeting all forms of network attacks.

Overall, EIP-7983 has practical significance in enhancing node execution stability and supporting future parallel architectures, but its scope of constraints is limited and still needs to be combined with other mechanisms to address broader network security issues.

Summary

There are differing opinions in the community regarding EIP-7983. Supporters believe that setting a gas limit for transactions aligns with Ethereum's direction of simplicity, security, and modular development, helping to improve network performance and user experience, especially in an environment where zkVM and L2 solutions are gradually maturing. Opponents focus on the complexity and compatibility risks brought about by transaction splitting and point out that network issues stem more from smart contract design rather than transaction gas limits.

EIP-7983 reflects the community's concern for network stability and execution efficiency. The proposal faces challenges and disagreements but offers a potential solution for the execution and scalability capabilities of Ethereum's foundational layer. Considering Ethereum's current multi-layer scaling and modular development direction, EIP-7983 has certain practical value, but its ultimate effect needs to be evaluated based on community adoption and implementation results.

Reference: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/9984/files

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