EIP-7935 is an Informational Ethereum Improvement Proposal created on April 22, 2025, that recommends a coordinated increase of the Ethereum mainnet's default block gas limit. The proposal specifies raising the limit from 36 million to 60 million. This change is not a consensus rule modification but rather an update to the default software configurations for execution layer clients, intended to be implemented in conjunction with the Fusaka network upgrade. The primary goals of EIP-7935 are to scale the execution capacity of Ethereum's base layer, allow for greater transaction throughput, and formalize the testing process for operating the network under a higher computational load. ^{[1] [2]}​

Overview and Motivation

EIP-7935 represents a strategic adjustment to Ethereum's on-chain capacity. As an "Informational" EIP, its implementation relies on social consensus and coordination among client development teams rather than a direct change to the Ethereum protocol's consensus rules. The proposal calls for developers of execution layer (EL) clients—the software that processes transactions and manages Ethereum's state—to change the default GAS_LIMIT parameter in their software from 36 million to 60 million. ^[2]

The primary motivation behind this increase is to enhance Layer 1 (L1) execution scalability. The block gas limit acts as a ceiling on the total amount of computational work (measured in gas) that can be included in a single block. By raising this limit, each block can accommodate more transactions or more computationally intensive smart contract interactions, thereby increasing the network's overall transaction throughput. ^{[3] [2]}

This proposal was introduced amidst a broader debate within the Ethereum community regarding its long-term scaling strategy. Ethereum's official "rollup-centric roadmap" prioritizes Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions, such as Optimistic and ZK-rollups, to handle the bulk of transaction processing. Under this model, the mainnet's primary role shifts to data availability and security, serving as a settlement layer for L2s. While this strategy has been effective, some critics argue that over-reliance on L2s can lead to fragmented liquidity, a complex user experience, and potential centralization risks, as many rollups in their early stages use centralized sequencers to order transactions. ^[4]

Proponents of EIP-7935 argue that modestly increasing the L1 gas limit is a direct and simple way to boost native throughput, enabling the base layer to better handle demand and remain competitive with other high-throughput blockchains. This change is seen not as a replacement for the rollup-centric roadmap, but as a complementary enhancement. The proposal emerged at a time in early 2025 when network gas fees were relatively low, a state partly attributed to the successful implementation of EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding), which dramatically reduced data posting costs for L2s and shifted user activity to these networks. This period of lower demand for L1 blockspace provided an opportune moment to consider and test a gas limit increase. ^[4]

Proposal Details

Specification

The technical core of EIP-7935 is a change to a single configuration value in Ethereum's execution layer client software. It does not introduce new protocol features but instead leverages an existing mechanism. ^[2]​

• Core Function: To change the default block gas limit that validator nodes use when proposing a new block. ^[1]
• Previous Default Gas Limit: 36,000,000. ^[2]
• New Default Gas Limit: 60,000,000. ^[2]

While the finalized proposal targets a 60 million gas limit, initial discussions and early reports in April 2025 cited a more aggressive target of 150 million. This higher figure was part of the early discourse around the proposal's introduction, but the official EIP was later standardized to the 60 million limit to ensure a safer, more incremental increase. ^{[4] [3]}​

Rationale for the EIP Process

Despite being a software configuration change rather than a consensus rule, the authors of EIP-7935 opted to use the formal Ethereum Improvement Proposal process. Historically, coordinating changes to the gas limit across all client teams has been challenging. The EIP framework provides a structured and transparent process that commits developer resources to the task. ^[2]​

By formalizing the change, the proposal ensures that all execution layer client teams (such as Geth, Nethermind, Besu, and Erigon) would dedicate time to rigorously test, identify, and patch any latent bugs or performance bottlenecks that might emerge when the network operates at a higher capacity. Tying the implementation to the Fusaka hard fork creates a clear timeline and fosters strong social consensus, making it highly probable that all clients will adopt the new default simultaneously, ensuring a smooth network-wide transition. ^[2]​

History and Development

Creation and Timeline

EIP-7935 was formally created and published on April 22, 2025. It was introduced by a group of prominent Ethereum researchers and developers via a pull request on the official Ethereum EIPs GitHub repository, signaling the start of formal community review. ^{[2] [4]}​

The proposal moved through the EIP standardization process and entered a "Last Call" status, with a final deadline for community feedback and comments set for October 28, 2025. Following this period, the EIP was confirmed for inclusion in the upcoming Fusaka hard fork. ^[2]​

Authors

The proposal was authored by a multi-disciplinary group of contributors from various Ethereum client and research teams, indicating broad support for the initiative. The listed authors are:

• Sophia Gold (@sophia-gold)
• Parithosh Jayanthi (@parithoshj)
• Toni Wahrstätter (@nerolation)
• Carl Beekhuizen (@CarlBeek)
• Ansgar Dietrichs (@adietrichs)
• Dankrad Feist (@dankrad)
• Alex Stokes (@ralexstokes)
• Josh Rudolph (@jrudolph)
• Giulio Rebuffo (@Giulio2002)
• Storm Slivkoff (@sslivkoff)
• Kamil Chodoła (@kamilchodola) ^[2]

Context of Gas Limit Changes

The gas limit on Ethereum has evolved significantly since the network's inception, reflecting ongoing efforts to scale the blockchain.

• 2015: At its launch, the gas limit was approximately 5,000 gas.
• 2021: The limit had grown to around 15 million gas.
• 2022: Following "The Merge," which transitioned Ethereum to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, the limit stabilized near 30 million gas.
• Early 2025: Preceding the proposal of EIP-7935, the limit was increased from 30 million to 36 million gas.

The increase to 60 million proposed in EIP-7935 represents another step in this long history of incremental capacity enhancements. ^{[4] [3]}​

Implementation in the Fusaka Upgrade

EIP-7935 is scheduled for implementation as part of the Fusaka network upgrade. The hard fork is scheduled to occur on December 3, 2025, at 21:49:11 UTC. Within the context of this upgrade, EIP-7935 is categorized as a "minor proposal," as it involves a configuration change rather than a fundamental alteration of the protocol. It is packaged with other, more complex proposals, such as EIP-7594 (PeerDAS) and EIP-7951, which are the major features of the Fusaka upgrade. ^[1]​

Security and Compatibility

Testing and Rollout Plan

A core component of the EIP-7935 process is its comprehensive testing plan, designed to ensure network stability and performance under the new, higher gas limit. The authors of the EIP outlined a multi-stage process to de-risk the deployment. This plan includes:

• Devnet Testing: The creation of dedicated developer networks (devnets) running various combinations of execution layer (EL) and consensus layer (CL) clients to test interoperability.
• Stress Testing: These devnets were subjected to sustained stress tests, where blocks were synthetically filled to their maximum capacity of 60 million gas. This process is designed to reveal performance degradation, memory leaks, or other latent bugs in client software.
• Network Monitoring: Throughout the testing phase, node and network health metrics were closely monitored to identify any adverse effects.
• Iterative Rollout: The plan specifies that if no significant issues were found, the gas limit would proceed. However, if major bugs were discovered, client teams would develop patches, and the testing cycle would be repeated. ^[2]

Block Size and Network Health

A key security consideration for any gas limit increase is its impact on block size and the corresponding strain on the network's peer-to-peer gossip layer. Larger blocks can take longer to propagate, potentially leading to an increase in orphaned blocks and reduced network stability.

The EIP-7935 authors cited prior research into adversarial block construction—blocks specifically designed to be as large and resource-intensive as possible for a given gas limit. This analysis concluded that a 60 million gas limit is well within safe bounds. It was estimated that even a worst-case block at this limit would not produce a block size that exceeds the Consensus Layer's 10 MiB gossip limit for blocks. The authors noted that the "danger zone," where block size could become a serious network issue, was estimated to be closer to a 150 million gas limit. At the time the EIP was written, the largest observed block on the mainnet was 1.79 MiB, indicating significant headroom. ^[2]

Backwards Compatibility

EIP-7935 is designed to be fully backwards compatible, meaning it is not expected to break any existing smart contracts or decentralized applications. However, the EIP's authors did note a potential conflict with a different, hypothetical EIP that might introduce a gas limit per transaction (e.g., a cap of 30 million gas for a single transaction). If such an EIP were implemented in the future, the 60 million block gas limit would allow for a block to contain a single transaction that exceeds this per-transaction limit. The authors state that the scheduling and specification of these two types of EIPs would need to be carefully coordinated in any future upgrades. ^[2]

Related Proposals

The discussion around EIP-7935 is part of a larger conversation about the future of Ethereum's L1 scaling. Another more aggressive proposal, EIP-9698, was also introduced in 2025 by EIP-7935 co-author Dankrad Feist.

EIP-9698, titled "Exponential Gas Limit Growth," proposes a deterministic schedule to increase the gas limit by a factor of 100 over a four-year period. The mechanism involves a tenfold increase every 164,250 epochs (approximately two years), which would raise the limit from 36 million to 3.6 billion. At such a limit, the Ethereum base layer could theoretically process up to 2,000 transactions per second. Proponents of this far-reaching plan argue that a predictable, gradual increase would give the ecosystem sufficient time to adapt node hardware and software. While EIP-7935 represents a conservative, near-term step, EIP-9698 illustrates the upper bound of ambition in the ongoing debate over L1 capacity. ^[4]