Ethereum could be on the brink of a major transformation. On April 27, Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist introduced Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 9698, suggesting a radical plan to expand the network’s gas limit by 100 times over the next four years.

Feist argues that the current system—where miners and node operators adjust the gas limit through voting—creates unpredictable and often stagnant growth. His new proposal calls for a default, automated exponential increase managed at the client level, aligning growth with expected advances in hardware and protocol efficiency.

If implemented, Ethereum’s gas capacity would leap from about 36 million to 3.6 billion, enabling around 2,000 transactions per second and approximately 6,000 transactions per block. This vision echoes Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s earlier suggestion for a tenfold gas limit hike to encourage base layer development.

However, not everyone is convinced. Core developers like Łukasz Rozmej and Jochem Brouwer warn that such aggressive growth could strain the network. They advocate for a slower, more cautious increase—perhaps a 2x rise over the next six months—to ensure stability.

If Ethereum’s transaction capacity truly expands at this pace, it could reframe the Layer 1 vs. Layer 2 debate and potentially open new opportunities for projects and users who depend on faster and cheaper transactions. For investors, this could hint at future momentum for ETH, especially if adoption accelerates.

Still, these developments remain speculative, and the risks of network strain and technical challenges are real. Investors should weigh both the potential rewards and the uncertainties carefully.

This article is not investment advice. Always conduct your own research before making financial decisions