Vitalik Buterin introduces new gas model for Ethereum transactions

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has proposed a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 7706, which focuses on an updated gas model for transaction call data.

Third form of gas proposed

In Ethereum-based transactions, there are currently two types of gas fees: one for transaction execution, which covers the computation effort, and one for storage, which is the cost of storing data in so-called ‘blobs’. Buterin’s proposal introduces a third form of gas, specifically for call data. This concerns the part of an Ethereum transaction that contains important data sent to smart contracts.

The new model means that the Ethereum blockchain will assign a unique fee to data transferred during transactions, separate from the cost of executing contract code or storing data. This model adds a new transaction type that provides max_basefee and priority_fee as a vector, with values ​​for execution gas, blob gas, and call data gas.

Currently, the basic fees for transaction costs and data storage are adjusted separately. Buterin proposes that with the introduction of this third gas fee, the Ethereum network takes a uniform approach to all three gas fees. The purpose of this is to reduce transaction costs for transactions that contain a lot of data, but are not necessarily compute intensive.

Dynamically manage all forms of gas

If this proposal is accepted, the Ethereum network will set call data charges independently of other charges. Buterin recommends managing all three forms of gas dynamically so that rates can change simultaneously. He states that introducing a separate gas tariff for call data would greatly reduce the theoretical maximum size of call data per block, while economic analyzes suggest that call data would become significantly cheaper on average.

The Ethereum network has been struggling with problems surrounding gas rates for years. The move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS) aimed to improve scalability and costs, but these crucial changes have not delivered the promised improvements. These new EIPs can therefore provide a welcome solution for the network.