The Ethereum network is constantly evolving and its co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has put forward a significant proposal to address the scalability challenges facing the blockchain.
At the 197th Ethereum Execution Layer Development Meeting, Buterin suggested considering the EIP-7623 network improvement proposal, which proposes increasing the number of blobs per block on Ethereum, to improve the performance and scalability of the blockchain.
EIP-7623 and the increase in the number of blobs
At the developer meeting, Buterin expressed concerns about Ethereum's scalability, emphasizing that blob space is currently at 75% capacity. He explained that the EIP-7623 enhancement proposal may increase the current blob limit, which is three blobs per block, with a maximum of six, to four blobs per block, with a maximum of eight.
According to Buterin, this modification is crucial to solve the challenges and congestion problems that the blockchain network may face.
The EIP-7623 proposal aims to increase the number of blobs on the network, as well as reduce the worst-case block size from approximately 2,7 MB to 1 MB. This change would allow for better data availability for Layer 2 solutions, which are critical to the growth of the Ethereum network.
Buterin’s proposal underscores the need for urgent action, as several Layer2 projects have been hesitant to adopt blobs due to fears of on-chain congestion.
“The basic argument is that blob space is currently 75% occupied, and I think the ecosystem is overlooking the fact that it is uncomfortably close to a ceiling: fees seem to be reliably near zero, but there are certainly multiple layer 2s that have considered migrating to blobs and decided not to, because they themselves would clog the market if they entered.”, Buterin argued.
The importance of blobs in the Ethereum network
Blobs are A new form of data storage introduced to Ethereum via EIP-4844. These allow for the storage of large chunks of data that are essential for Layer2 solutions, which are responsible for processing transactions outside of the Ethereum main chain to alleviate the load on the latter. The use of blobs facilitates data management and improves the efficiency of transactions on the network.
On the other hand, the importance of blobs lies in its ability to allow for greater volumes of data and transactionsBy increasing the number of blobs per block, the network's capacity to handle more transactions simultaneously is also increased, which can reduce costs for users and improve the overall experience.
In this context, the proposal recently presented by Buterin not only seeks to increase storage capacity, but also to optimize the performance of the Ethereum network as a whole.
The debate over Ethereum’s scalability and the possibility of increasing the number of blobs comes as developers prepare for its next major upgrade, Pectra, which is designed to improve Ethereum’s efficiency and scalability, and allow the network to better adapt to the growing demands of the ecosystem.
