Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has put forward a new Ethereum improvement protocol, known as EIP-7706, which focuses on a fresh gas model for transaction call data. Currently, Ethereum-based transactions have two types of gas fees: one for transaction execution and another for storage. Buterin’s proposal introduces a third form of gas exclusively for call data. This means that the Ethereum blockchain will assign a unique charge to data transmitted during transactions, separate from the costs of executing contract code or storing data.
The new gas model will introduce a transaction type that provides max_basefee and priority_fee as a vector, offering values for execution gas, blob gas, and call data gas. Currently, the base fee adjustment uses separate mechanisms for the transaction execution cost and data storage in the form of blobs. However, Buterin suggests that with the introduction of a third type of gas fee, the Ethereum network should adopt a common approach for all three types of gas fees.
The aim of this move is to reduce the transaction costs associated with data-heavy transactions that are not necessarily computationally intensive. If accepted, the Ethereum network will be responsible for setting the call data costs independently of other costs. Buterin recommends managing all three forms of gas through a dynamic model that modifies fees simultaneously.
By implementing a separate gas fee for call data, Buterin believes that the “theoretical max call data size of a block would be greatly reduced, while basic economic analysis suggests that on average, call data would become considerably cheaper.”
Despite the primary motivation of moving from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake being more scalability and lower costs, the Ethereum network has struggled with gas fee issues for years. The changes implemented so far have not improved the network’s scalability as promised, with subsequent EIPs attempting to address these challenges.
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