Crypto: Ethereum Is Nearing Its Limits, Vitalik Sounds The Alarm

The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, recently warned the crypto community about an imminent risk of network saturation. According to him, the number of “blobs” is dangerously approaching its maximum limit.

Vitalik Buterin reveals an imminent blockage risk

The growing adoption of layer 2 solutions on Ethereum has led to intensive use of blobs, introduced during the recent Dencun upgrade. These storage spaces, designed to improve network performance, are now filled to about 75% of their capacity.

“I think the ecosystem is asleep on the fact that it is dangerously close to a ceiling“, Buterin said in a thread following a call with the developers.

This situation could hinder the growth of L2 protocols, which heavily rely on these blobs to publish their data on the main blockchain.

In light of this observation, Buterin proposed to increase the number of blobs per block, from the current target of three (with a maximum of six) to four (with a maximum of eight). This modification would increase the data storage capacity per block, thus offering more leeway to L2 networks.

Crypto solutions under development

To address this issue, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-7623) is currently under review. It aims to increase the data call cost for transactions mainly using Ethereum for data availability.

This measure would reduce the maximum block size from 2.7 MB to around 1 MB, while potentially increasing the block gas limit or the number of blobs. Buterin emphasizes the crucial importance of this proposal: “EIP-7623 is crucial for this as it ensures that the worst-case block size decreases significantly“.

The Ethereum community is mobilizing in the face of this major issue. Jesse Pollak, creator of Coinbase L2 Base, notably expressed his support for Buterin’s proposal, highlighting the benefits in terms of reducing block size and adding capacity for the growing L2s.