A grassroots movement within the Ethereum community is gathering momentum as developer Eric Conner and former MakerDAO smart contract lead Mariano Conti launch a bold initiative to increase the network’s gas limit by 33%. Their campaign, aptly named Pump The Gas, proposes raising the Ethereum gas limit from 30 million to 40 million per block, a change they argue could reduce transaction fees by 15% to 33% on the mainnet.
The Architecture
The gas limit represents the maximum amount of computational work that can be packed into a single Ethereum block. Every transaction, every smart contract execution, every token transfer consumes gas, and the total gas used by all operations in a block cannot exceed this ceiling. Currently set at 30 million gas per block, this limit acts as a throttle on network throughput, directly influencing how many transactions the network can process and, consequently, how much users pay in fees.
Conner and Conti argue that the time is right for an increase. Since Ethereum transitioned to Proof of Stake with the Merge in September 2022, network stability has improved dramatically. Validators now process blocks at a consistent 12-second cadence, and the network has demonstrated it can handle significantly more load than the current gas limit permits. Hardware costs have decreased, and validator hardware has become more powerful, making a higher gas limit technically feasible without compromising decentralization.
Consensus Mechanisms — Building Community Support
The Pump The Gas campaign operates through a dedicated web platform where solo stakers, client development teams, staking pools, and community members can signal their support for the increase. The approach reflects Ethereum’s governance philosophy: changes to core parameters like the gas limit require broad consensus among validators and node operators rather than a top-down decision.
The proposal arrives at a nuanced moment in Ethereum’s evolution. The Dencun upgrade, which activated on March 13, 2024, introduced EIP-4844 — a revolutionary change that created “blob” storage for Layer 2 rollups, slashing fees on networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Starknet by over 90%. Transactions that previously cost $0.50 or more on L2s now cost pennies or even fractions of a cent. However, Conner and Conti point out that Dencun’s benefits accrue almost exclusively to Layer 2 users. Mainnet transactions — DeFi operations, NFT mints, direct token transfers — remain subject to the same fee pressures as before.
Network Health — The Numbers Behind the Proposal
Ethereum currently trades at approximately $3,336 as of March 23, 2024, with a market capitalization of $400.6 billion. The network processes billions of dollars in daily transaction volume, making gas fees a material cost for users and institutions alike. During periods of high demand, gas prices on the Ethereum mainnet can spike to levels that make routine DeFi operations prohibitively expensive for smaller users.
The Pump The Gas proponents cite data showing that a 40 million gas limit could be safely sustained by current validator hardware. The increase would allow more transactions per block, reducing competition for block space and naturally driving down the price users are willing to pay for gas inclusion. Their analysis suggests a potential fee reduction of 15% to 33%, depending on network conditions and demand patterns.
Critics of the proposal raise valid concerns. Increasing the gas limit means larger blocks, which requires more storage and bandwidth from node operators. Some developers worry that this could gradually raise the hardware requirements for running a node, potentially centralizing the network over time. Others argue that the focus should remain on Layer 2 scaling solutions rather than expanding mainnet capacity, preserving the base layer as a settlement platform optimized for security and decentralization rather than throughput.
Developer Ecosystem — A Community Divided
The debate highlights a fundamental tension within the Ethereum development community. On one side are pragmatists who believe the network must address immediate user pain points, including high mainnet fees, to maintain its competitive position against faster, cheaper alternatives like Solana, which has attracted 49.3% of global investor interest in blockchain ecosystems according to CoinGecko data from March 2024. Solana’s ability to process thousands of transactions per second at fractions of a cent has drawn significant user and developer attention.
On the other side are long-term strategists who view any increase in mainnet capacity as a potential threat to decentralization. They point to the planned roadmap of danksharding and other scaling solutions as the sustainable path forward, arguing that expanding mainnet capacity could create technical debt that complicates future upgrades.
Meanwhile, the broader market context adds urgency to the debate. Bitcoin continues to dominate at $64,062 with a $1.26 trillion market cap, and the total crypto market sits at approximately $2.44 trillion. As institutional capital flows into the space through vehicles like spot Bitcoin ETFs — which have seen inflows of $167 million in a single day this week, led by BlackRock’s IBIT fund — the pressure on Ethereum to demonstrate scalability and cost-efficiency has never been greater.
Final Assessment
Whether the Pump The Gas campaign succeeds in raising the gas limit to 40 million remains to be seen. The initiative requires coordinated action from validators representing a majority of staked ETH, and the community debate is far from settled. What is clear, however, is that the conversation around Ethereum’s scalability has entered a new phase. With Dencun addressing Layer 2 costs, the spotlight now turns to the mainnet itself — and the question of how much capacity is enough, and at what cost to decentralization.
For users, the outcome of this debate could have a direct impact on the cost of interacting with Ethereum’s vast ecosystem of DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and decentralized applications. As the network continues to evolve, the balance between scalability, security, and decentralization remains the defining challenge of the Ethereum project.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.
eric conner and mariano conti pushing for 40M gas limit is exactly what eth needs. 15-33% fee reduction is massive for DeFi users
pump the gas is the best name for a campaign lol. but seriously 30M has been the limit too long
Post-Merge stability is real though. The argument that validators can handle 33% more per block is sound.
validators handled the 30M limit fine for months. the 40M push is conservative honestly, some client teams were already testing 50M on testnets without issues
50M on testnets with no issues and people are arguing about 40M being too aggressive. the conservatism in eth governance is frustrating
eric conner has been right about ethereum scaling for years. 30M to 40M is overdue, the gas limit hasnt moved since EIP-1559 launched
gas limit hasnt moved since EIP-1559 while L1 activity kept growing. 40M is the bare minimum update, should have been 45M