Ethereum Developers Propose Transaction Gas Cap to Prevent DoS Attacks

In Brief:

New proposal EIP-7983 would cap single transaction gas usage at 16.77 million to prevent DoS risks.

Developers say most users and dApps are unlikely to be affected by the change.

Ethereum developers have introduced EIP-7983, a proposal aimed at protecting the network from potential Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks by setting a hard cap on the gas that a single transaction can consume. The update, co-authored by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and researcher Toni Wahrstätter, is designed to boost platform stability and make Ethereum more predictable and scalable.

Under the proposal, each transaction would be limited to a maximum of 16.77 million gas units (2²⁴), regardless of the block’s total gas capacity. Any transaction exceeding this cap would automatically be deemed invalid and rejected before processing.

The motivation behind the proposal stems from the increased frequency of resource-heavy transactions that consume nearly the full gas limit of an entire block. Such transactions pose a threat to Ethereum’s performance and open the door for DoS vulnerabilities, especially as the network evolves to support zkVMs and more complex DeFi operations.

To minimize disruption, the proposal includes a method for splitting larger transactions into smaller ones. This could help maintain compatibility for complex smart contracts while ensuring no single transaction can overload the network.

The developers noted that most existing Ethereum transactions already fall well below the proposed gas threshold, suggesting that few users or dApps will be affected if the cap is implemented.

The proposal is currently under review and may undergo further community discussion and testing before potential deployment.

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