Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum’s Growth Will Be “Less Uniform” as Gas Costs Face Targeted Adjustments

Core Insights - Ethereum has successfully doubled its block gas limit to 60 million within a year, significantly enhancing its network capacity [1][4]. - This expansion is seen as a crucial development for Ethereum's mainnet, indicating its readiness for more complex applications and higher transaction volumes [2][3]. Gas Limit Expansion - The increase from approximately 30 million to 60 million gas per block represents a substantial boost in network throughput, allowing for more transactions and smart contract executions [4]. - The change was a result of coordinated efforts among client teams and the research community, highlighting a collective confidence in Ethereum's execution layer [3][5]. Future Expectations - Vitalik Buterin anticipates continued growth in gas limits but suggests that future increases will be more targeted rather than uniform, focusing on specific operations to enhance efficiency without compromising decentralization [6]. - The gas limit expansion aligns with Ethereum's gradualist scaling philosophy, emphasizing incremental improvements while maintaining long-term decentralization [7]. Technical Adjustments - Specific operations that may see gas limit adjustments include SSTORE for new storage creation, CALLs to contracts with large code sizes, and certain complex arithmetic opcodes [8].