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Details
- The Ethereum Foundation has restructured its core R&D operations into a new Protocol team, prioritizing three focus areas: scaling Ethereum’s base layer (L1), improving blobspace for layer-2 solutions, and enhancing user experience.
- Marius van der Wijden has joined Ansgar Dietrichs and Tim Beiko to co-lead the Scale L1 initiative, with renewed emphasis on security and sustained development progress.
- Ethereum’s mainnet gas limit has been raised to 45 million per block following the BerlinInterop event, part of a wider roadmap targeting a 100 million gas cap through ongoing client and network performance gains.
- The team is developing Block-Level Access Lists to enable parallel transaction execution, implementing History Expiry to cut node storage by 300–500 GB, and utilizing Bloatnet to test state growth and refine gas pricing strategies.
- Work continues on a zkEVM attester client prototype to eventually enable zero-knowledge proof-based validation and further gas increases, while the Foundation is actively hiring a Performance Engineering Lead to support these advancements.
Impact
This strategic restructuring aims to ensure Ethereum remains competitive as rival blockchains like Solana tout higher throughput and lower maintenance requirements. By raising gas limits and advancing technical solutions, Ethereum addresses its core scalability bottlenecks, underscoring its intent to maintain leadership in programmable blockchains amid growing L2 adoption. The focused R&D push signals a commitment to infrastructure and community-led innovation, keeping Ethereum at the forefront of decentralized technology.
