Vitalik Buterin, primarily known as the co-founder of Ethereum, is now advocating for a new strategic direction for the network. Following a year that saw the network’s capacity double, he believes the time has come to focus on making Ethereum both bigger and smarter.
Doubling of Capacity #
The gas limit could potentially become five times larger. This is positive news for users of the Ethereum network, but it also means that the cost of complex operations on the network could become five times more expensive in the coming years. Therefore, optimization must become a central focus, argues Vitalik Buterin.
The block gas limit has been increased to 60 million. Gas limits determine how much computational power can fit into a block. The jump from 30 to 60 million gas per block means further downward pressure on transaction fees, allowing more users to be active simultaneously. A higher gas limit benefits users, but it also places more demands on those who create and approve blocks.
This change was not a spontaneous decision but the result of months of consultation between developers, researchers, and node operators. They considered the balance between scalability, hardware requirements, and maintaining decentralization. According to researchers at the Ethereum Foundation, this demonstrates that the network is ready for more demanding applications.
Addressing Ethereum Network Limitations #
Buterin was responding to an analysis by Ethereum Foundation researcher Tony Warshtätter. Shortly after the announcement, Buterin indicated that while the gas limit will likely continue to grow, it will not be through such uniform doubling. He expects targeted adjustments to specific parts of the protocol by 2026. According to Buterin, the focus will be on operations that place a heavy burden on the network.
Just a year after the community started pushing for higher gas limits, Ethereum is now running with a 60M block gas limit.
That’s a 2× increase in a single year — and it’s only the beginning.
H/t to all client teams, the researchers involved, and to @nanexcool and @econoar for… pic.twitter.com/5JB8FoiACP
— Toni Wahrstätter ⟠ (@nero_eth) November 26, 2025
Buterin mentioned several components that need to be adjusted. These include creating new storage, calls to large smart contracts, complex computational instructions like MODMUL, and the costs of calling data. If all these limits were increased fivefold, the gas space per block could rise to 300 million.
Such adjustments would make the network more efficient by primarily making heavy computations cheaper without overloading other processes. The goal is more scalability without endangering the decentralization of validators. This means expanding the system without requiring fewer independent validators or losing their decentralization.
Previously, researcher Dankrad Feist even proposed a jump to 3.6 billion gas, but Buterin considers such extreme steps unrealistic in the short term.
Potential Bottlenecks and Risks #
Toni Wahrstätter also outlined what is possible in the short term. Block Acceleration Layers (BALs) could deliver a scalability advantage of a factor of eight. The planned update (EIP-7732) could increase that advantage by another three to four times. This means new techniques could make transaction processing up to eight times faster, and a future update could accelerate this by another three to four times.
However, risks also loom. If the gas limit rises toward 500 million, as expected after the Glamsterdam upgrade, data throughput will hit limits. Without additional improvements or optimizations, node synchronization will also face bottlenecks.
In addition to the technical debate, Buterin announced another major donation. He donated 256 ethereum to the decentralized messaging apps Session and SimpleX Chat. At the current ethereum price, this amounts to approximately €670,000. According to him, both projects are taking important steps in digital privacy, but there is still much work to be done. Buterin wrote the following on ‘X’:
@session_app and @SimpleXChat are two messaging apps that are actively advancing these developments. That is why I donated 128 ETH to each. The addresses are on their websites, for anyone who wants to follow along.
In late September, Buterin spoke out fiercely against the introduction of the so-called Chat Control law.