Author: Martin Young, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Wuzhu, Golden Finance
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wants to increase the “blob count” introduced during the Dencun upgrade to further scale the network and enable layer 2 protocols to increase capacity.
In a discussion thread following the latest developer call, Buterin revealed that blob space is currently around 75% full and that changes need to be implemented via Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-7623 to increase the blob count:
“I think the ecosystem is ignoring the fact that it’s close to its ceiling.”
Blob space refers to a dedicated data storage area (also known as proto-danksharding) introduced by EIP-4844 to improve the scalability of the network.
This space is designed to temporarily store large amounts of data, primarily to benefit layer 2 rollups.
The blob count is the number of blobs that can be included in each Ethereum block.
The current target is 3 blobs per block, with a maximum of 6, and Buterin is now advocating for increasing this to 4 blobs, with a maximum of 8 blobs, so that each block can store more data, which may increase the ability of L2 networks to publish data on Ethereum.
Buterin talks about increasing the number of blobs. Source: GitHub
EIP-7623 proposes to increase the call data cost for transactions that primarily use Ethereum for data availability (DA). This would reduce the maximum block size from 2.7 megabytes to about 1MB and leave room for a possible increase in the block gas limit or the number of blobs.
Buterin expressed concern that some L2s are reluctant to switch to blobs due to potential market congestion. “We can’t let the momentum for more Layer 2s to switch to blobs falter,” he warned, adding:
“EIP-7623 is crucial for this as it ensures that the worst-case size of blocks is significantly reduced.”
Buterin believes that layer 2 networks are an important component of Ethereum scaling, but he also emphasizes that they must be decentralized. Recently, he said that he only plans to recognize scaling solutions in the “first phase” of decentralized scaling.
In a Sept. 26 X post, Coinbase L2 Base founder Jesse Pollak said he strongly supports Buterin’s proposal to increase the number of blobs. Pollak said it “reduces the worst-case block size and increases the capacity needed for a rapidly growing L2,” and that “the growth is exponential.”
While the much-anticipated Prague upgrade will focus on changes to the network’s execution layer, the Electra upgrade will affect the consensus layer, hence the name Pectra (Prague Electra). It includes a number of EIPs that will improve scalability, introduce account abstraction, and increase validator staking limits.
Ethereum developers have proposed splitting the Pectra upgrade into two parts, PectraA and PectraB, to speed up its deployment.
