Popular Science: How is the Ethereum block size determined?
Author: NEST enthusiast_CryptoV12
Author: NEST enthusiast_CryptoV12UniswapWith the development of the blockchain industry, the ecosystem built on the basis of the Ethereum network is getting bigger and bigger. In addition to satisfying the transaction packaging of various assets issued based on the Ethereum network, it also needs to meet the packaging of various smart contracts. transactions, such as DeFi protocols (NEST Protocol), oracle protocol (Decentraland) and other related business contracts. This makes the Ethereum network need to process more and more transactions, so that we often see congestion in Ethereum and a sharp increase in miner fees when the market fluctuates.
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(Figure 1, EthGasStation: Ethereum network gas fee consumption ranking)According to the current natural growth rate of the state of the Ethereum blockchain, it will not be long before the Ethereum network will face some problems.Because, with the continuous growth of Ethereum block data, the threshold for running a full node of Ethereum will become higher and higher, which will lead to a more centralized Ethereum network.
(Currently running an Ethereum node requires about 220GB of storage space)It may become slower and slower as network latency increases;"Status Expansion"Both end users and core developers of Ethereum will be hit hard, which will affect the sustainable development of Ethereum ecology.
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(Figure 2, Etherscan: the daily number of transactions to be packaged on the Ethereum network)On a macro level,Ethereum 1.0The problem the network is facing is that the Ethereum blockchain is getting bigger and bigger! In terms of subdivision, the variables that make this problem more prominent are mainlyData storage, transaction state, block size3 impact factors. Today, we mainly analyze"Ethereum block size"
For this core factor, let’s learn more about how the block size of the Ethereum network is determined.
Unlike the Bitcoin network, Ethereum does not explicitly limit the size of each block by memory, but enforces the size of each block through the block GasLimit.The most recent vote was in the second half of 2019. Miners voted to increase the block GasLimit of Ethereum from the original 8 million Gas units to 10 million, increasing the size of each block by 25% compared to the previous block. Or so, this theoretically increases the TPS of the Ethereum network.
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(Figure 3, BTC.COM shows that the TPS of the Ethereum network: 8 ~ 14)Increasing the GasLimit upper limit of a block means that the amount of data packaged in a single block increases, and the block becomes larger, which in turn slows down the speed of information dissemination, which will increase the probability of block generation of uncle blocks.
Even ethereum uncle blocks have part of the ETH mining reward, but miners don't want to encounter it. Therefore, there is a check and balance relationship between the GasLimit upper limit of a single block and the miner group. (Note: In the Ethereum system, if multiple miners dig out new blocks at the same block height, one of these blocks will become the block on the longest chain, while other blocks, If it is referenced by a subsequent block, it will be called an Uncle Block)Therefore, the GasLimit of a single block of the Ethereum network cannot be greatly prompted in a short period of time.
Instead, dynamic adjustments should be made according to the development status of the Ethereum network to balance the efficiency required for ecological development and the interests of miners.So far, the relevant"safe"
There is still a scientific conclusion to the block size upper limit data, but we generally believe that the increase in TPS brought about by increasing the GasLimit upper limit of a single block is not enough to realize the development of Ethereum in the next 3 years. In addition, there are many other related problems.
