Ethereum Foundation Scale L1 Update Analysis: Building a More Efficient Blockchain Future

Ethereum Foundation’s Scale L1 update boosts gas limits to 45M, aiming for 100M, with BALs and zkEVM to enhance mainnet efficiency and decentralization.

History Expiry saves 300–500 GB for nodes, while BALs enable parallel transaction processing, supporting Ethereum’s L1 scaling for higher throughput and lower costs.

zkEVM attester client and node optimizations drive Ethereum’s L1 scaling, targeting massive gas limit increases while maintaining security and community-driven development.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) recently shared an update about restructuring its research and development teams under the “Protocol” initiative. This focuses on three main goals: scaling the mainnet (Scale L1), optimizing data blobs (Scale Blobs), and improving user experience (Improve UX), all while keeping Ethereum secure and decentralized.

The update details progress on Scale L1, covering gas limit increases, historical data management, block-level optimizations, and zero-knowledge proof advancements.

LEADERSHIP TEAM STRENGTHENED: BALANCING ENGINEERING AND SECURITY

Scaling Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1) is a complex task that requires balancing performance improvements with protocol security. The Ethereum Foundation has formed a strong leadership team for Scale L1, with Marius van der Wijden joining Ansgar Dietrichs and Tim Beiko. Marius is known for his extensive work on Geth, Ethereum’s most widely used execution client, and his focus on protocol security. His experience adds practical engineering skills to the team.

Ansgar brings research expertise to explore new technologies, while Tim ensures smooth coordination with the community. Together, they drive initiatives like gas limit increases and new protocol designs. Their work ensures Ethereum stays decentralized and secure while scaling. This leadership setup provides a solid foundation for making Ethereum’s mainnet faster and more efficient.

GAS LIMIT BREAKTHROUGH: AIMING FOR 100 MILLION GAS

Ethereum’s mainnet throughput depends on the gas limit per block, which sets how many transactions and computations can happen in a second. At the recent Berlinterop developer event, client teams improved performance benchmarks, allowing the gas limit to rise to 45 million.

This is a key step toward the goal of 100 million gas. Parithosh Jayanthi and Nethermind’s PerfNet team led this effort by optimizing clients for worst-case scenarios, ensuring the network stays stable under high load. The Pectra upgrade showed that high throughput can cause network issues, like losing finality temporarily. To address this, the team strengthened clients with better error handling and sync mechanisms.

A higher gas limit means more transactions per block, lowering gas fees and making Ethereum more affordable for users and developers. This progress shows Ethereum’s commitment to improving user experience and sets the stage for even higher throughput in the future.

HISTORICAL DATA MANAGEMENT: MAKING NODES LIGHTER

Running an Ethereum full node requires storing all historical transaction data, which grows over time and can make it harder for regular users to participate, weakening decentralization. The Ethereum Foundation’s History Expiry project tackles this issue. Led by Matt Garnett, Partial History Expiry was recently deployed, removing pre-Merge historical data and saving full nodes about 300–500 GB of disk space.

Now, a 2TB hard drive is enough to run a full node, making it more accessible. The team is also working on Rolling History Expiry, which will continuously trim data beyond a fixed retention period. In the future, nodes will only store recent data, while archival nodes keep the full history to ensure data availability.

This approach keeps node storage needs manageable, even as Ethereum handles more transactions. By lowering the cost of running nodes, this project strengthens Ethereum’s decentralized nature, making the network more resilient and inclusive.

BLOCK-LEVEL ACCESS LISTS: SPEEDING UP TRANSACTION PROCESSING

Ethereum’s transaction processing speed is a key bottleneck for L1 scaling, as transactions are currently executed one by one. Block-Level Access Lists (BALs), led by Toni Wahrstaetter, are a major proposal for the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade. BALs allow clients to process transactions in parallel by defining each transaction’s state dependencies in advance.

This speeds up transaction execution and enables parallel state root calculations, cutting down block validation time. BALs also preload the state needed for block execution, reducing random disk access and improving efficiency. This benefits new nodes syncing with the network and archival nodes by lowering resource use.

By enabling faster block processing and higher gas limits, BALs will make Ethereum more efficient. This innovation is a game-changer for the Glamsterdam upgrade, helping Ethereum handle more transactions and faster block times.

PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING AND RESOURCE PRICING: FINE-TUNING THE EVM

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) runs smart contracts, but its gas costs don’t always match the actual computational effort, slowing down complex contracts in worst-case scenarios. The Ethereum Foundation is addressing this through two efforts. First, Ansgar Dietrichs and the PerfNet team are running benchmarks to find EVM bottlenecks, like operations that slow down block processing under high load.

Their optimizations narrow the gap between worst-case and average performance, allowing safer gas limit increases. Second, Carlos Pérez’s Bloatnet project tests nodes in extreme scenarios, with state sizes twice the current mainnet and gas limits of 100–150 million. These tests guide Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) for the Glamsterdam upgrade, adjusting gas costs to better reflect computational effort.

These improvements make block execution more stable and predictable, enabling Ethereum to handle complex smart contracts and higher transaction volumes. This work builds a more efficient EVM, supporting long-term scaling.

ZERO-KNOWLEDGE PROOFS: EXPLORING ZKEVM’S FUTURE

Ethereum nodes currently execute all transactions in a block, which is computationally expensive, especially with high gas limits. Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) offer a solution by allowing nodes to verify a proof of block execution instead of re-running transactions.

Kevaundray Wedderburn is leading the development of a zkEVM attester client prototype that aims to generate these proofs in real time. This project is making steady progress, showing that real-time ZK proofs are within reach. Initially, zkEVM will be an optional verification method, with a small group of nodes testing its stability and security over the next year.

As confidence grows, it could become the default, potentially allowing a massive gas limit increase, described as “beast mode.” This would make Ethereum’s mainnet much faster and cheaper while keeping it decentralized. The zkEVM project is a bold step toward a high-throughput future for Ethereum.

NODE OPTIMIZATION AND TALENT STRATEGY: SUPPORTING SCALE L1

As Ethereum’s mainnet handles more transactions, different node types—execution, consensus, and RPC—face unique challenges. RPC nodes, which handle historical and real-time state requests, are under increasing pressure.

The Ethereum Foundation’s Geth and PandaOps teams are exploring optimized configurations, like better caching and parallel processing, to improve performance and user experience. These optimizations are critical for keeping nodes reliable as throughput grows.

To strengthen expertise in this area, the Foundation is hiring a Performance Engineering Lead, with applications closing on August 10. This role shows EF’s commitment to long-term node performance improvements, especially for diverse node needs. By combining node optimizations with top talent recruitment, the Foundation ensures Scale L1’s success and encourages community participation in Ethereum’s growth.

IMPACT ON ETHEREUM’S ECOSYSTEM

These developments form a bold plan for scaling Ethereum’s L1, with wide-ranging effects. For users and developers, higher gas limits and BALs will increase transaction capacity, lowering gas fees and making DApps more affordable to build and use. History Expiry reduces storage needs, allowing more people to run full nodes and strengthening decentralization by preventing the network from relying on a few powerful nodes.

The zkEVM project offers a long-term vision, potentially transforming Ethereum into a high-throughput, low-cost platform while staying decentralized. The Foundation also invites community collaboration, encouraging developers to contribute to Glamsterdam EIPs and zkEVM testing. This open approach speeds up innovation and builds community trust, driving Ethereum’s growth.

〈Ethereum Foundation Scale L1 Update Analysis: Building a More Efficient Blockchain Future〉這篇文章最早發佈於《CoinRank》。