Ethereum Protocol Update Scale Blobs - Devconnect

Why It Matters

Scaling L1 and blob capacity directly expands Ethereum’s transaction throughput and reduces costs, enabling broader roll‑up adoption while maintaining decentralization—a critical competitive advantage for the platform.

Summary

The Devconnect presentation outlined the Ethereum Foundation’s twelve‑month protocol roadmap, concentrating on three pillars: scaling the L1, scaling blobs, and improving user experience. The speakers traced the evolution from early‑year discussions—highlighted in an April blog by the new executive directors—to the formation of “protocol clusters” that coordinate technical teams around these priorities.

Key technical progress includes a systematic increase of the gas limit from a stagnant 30 million to 45 million through performance optimizations, and an upcoming jump to 60 million with the Fusaka hard fork. Subsequent upgrades, notably the Glum Sedan fork, aim to push throughput toward 80‑120 million gas by repricing opcodes and refining access‑list handling. Parallel efforts formalized node hardware requirements (EIP‑7870) and advanced ZK‑EVM proving times to under 12 seconds, positioning zero‑knowledge roll‑ups as a viable path to break the “diagonal” scaling trade‑off.

The talk referenced several influential voices: Vitalik Buterin’s February note that a ten‑fold L1 capacity increase is “not a bad idea,” and Justin Sun’s hyperbolic “giga‑gas” comment underscoring community appetite for aggressive scaling. Concrete milestones were highlighted—early‑year performance wins lifted the gas limit by 20 %, the EIP‑4844 “proto‑sharding” upgrade introduced dedicated blob space for roll‑up data availability, and the ZK‑EVM team’s recent proof‑time breakthroughs were celebrated as a collective industry achievement.

If successful, these upgrades will raise Ethereum’s transaction throughput three‑fold annually without raising node hardware barriers, preserving decentralization while lowering fees for end‑users. Enhanced blob support will solidify roll‑up data availability, encouraging broader L2 adoption and sustaining Ethereum’s lead in the smart‑contract ecosystem.

Original Description

Speakers: Ansgar Dietrichs and Barnabé Monnot

Event: Ethereum Day (Devconnect Argentina 2025)

Keywords: Ethereum, Protocol, L1, Scaling

About Devconnect

Devconnect is a week-long gathering of the Ethereum community with events for developers, researchers, artists and creators. It’s organized by the Ethereum Foundation and took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in Nov 2025, with ~20,000 attendees.

What’s next

The next major Ethereum community event is Devcon 8, happening in 2026.

For updates visit: https://devcon.org

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Learn more about Ethereum: https://ethereum.org

And the Ethereum Foundation: https://ethereum.foundation/