Update Gas and Fees, Blocks and Transactions pages #3509
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| In short, gas fees help keep the Ethereum network secure. By requiring a fee for every computation executed on the network, we prevent actors from spamming the network. In order to prevent accidental or hostile infinite loops or other computational wastage in code, each transaction is required to set a limit to how many computational steps of code execution it can use. The fundamental unit of computation is "gas". | ||
| Starting with [the London update](/history/#london), every block has a base fee, the minimum per gas price for inclusion in this block. Optionally, users can set a priority fee (tip). |
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I'd suggest adding a brief paragraph to begin the "After the London update" where we summarize the high level goals, e.g. 1) reducing variance of tx fees/delays through flexible block sizes, 2) improve UX by making fees more predictable 3) decrease rate of inflation by burning tx fees.
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Good resource on the "why": https://hackmd.io/@timbeiko/why-1559
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Should we also make note EIP-1559 here during the introduction of the London changes?
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Hacked.io. Love the idea for getting everyone on the same page.
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Included this
[The London Upgrade](/history/#london) aims to make transacting on Ethereum more predictable for users by overhauling Ethereum's transaction-fee-mechanism. The high-level benefits introduced by this change include better transaction fee estimation, generally quicker transaction inclusion, and reducing the ETH rate of inflation by burning a percentage of transaction fees.
Should we also make note EIP-1559 here during the introduction of the London changes?
Thoughts on keeping EIP-1559 discussion contained within the EIP-1559 heading? I could add a small intro saying that most of the changes we're speaking about were introduced in 1559.
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@minimalsm This is looking awesome! I too left a couple comments and suggestions, but overall excited to get this out there. 👍🏻
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| ## Block size {#block-size} | |||
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| A final important note is that blocks themselves are bounded in size. Each block has a block gas limit which is set by the network and the miners collectively: the total amount of gas expended by all transactions in the block must be less than the block gas limit. This is important because it ensures that blocks can’t be arbitrarily large. If blocks could be arbitrarily large, then less performant full nodes would gradually stop being able to keep up with the network due to space and speed requirements. The block gas limit at block 0 was initialized to 5,000; any miner who mines a new block can alter the gas limit by up to about 0.1% in either direction from the parent block gas limit. The gas limit as of April 2021 currently hovers around 15,000,000. | |||
| A final important note is that, as of with [the London update](/history/#london), blocks themselves are no longer bounded in size. Each block has a target size of 15 million gas but the size of blocks will increase or decrease in accordance with network demands, up until the block limit of 30 milion gas (2x target block size). The total amount of gas expended by all transactions in the block must be less than the block gas limit. This is important because it ensures that blocks can’t be arbitrarily large. If blocks could be arbitrarily large, then less performant full nodes would gradually stop being able to keep up with the network due to space and speed requirements. | |||
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blocks themselves are no longer bounded in size.
We subsequently state that the block limit is 30 million... would consider the following:
| A final important note is that, as of with [the London update](/history/#london), blocks themselves are no longer bounded in size. Each block has a target size of 15 million gas but the size of blocks will increase or decrease in accordance with network demands, up until the block limit of 30 milion gas (2x target block size). The total amount of gas expended by all transactions in the block must be less than the block gas limit. This is important because it ensures that blocks can’t be arbitrarily large. If blocks could be arbitrarily large, then less performant full nodes would gradually stop being able to keep up with the network due to space and speed requirements. | |
| A final important note is that, as of [the London update](/history/#london), blocks themselves are more flexible in size. Each block has a target size of 15 million gas but the size of blocks will increase or decrease in accordance with network demands, up until the block limit of 30 million gas (2x target block size). The total amount of gas expended by all transactions in the block must be less than the block gas limit. This is important because it ensures that blocks can’t be arbitrarily large. If blocks could be arbitrarily large, then less performant full nodes would gradually stop being able to keep up with the network due to space and speed requirements. |
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Do we have a resource stating the new block capacity would be 30 million? I had been under the impression it was 25 million, but given current limit is now 15 million I wasn't sure... Didn't see anything specifying this in the EIP-1559 spec, and a cursory search online gave a mix of answers.
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Yup this confused me too so I double checked with Trent. 30 million is correct.
When 1559 is activated, the gasLimit of blocks will double (e.g. 15m to 30m), so “50% full” blocks post-1559 are equivalent to 100% full blocks pre-1559.
Source: https://hackmd.io/@q8X_WM2nTfu6nuvAzqXiTQ/1559-wallets
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A few clarifications:
- Blocks are still bounded in size, but at the fork block the block gas limit will double;
- After that blocks, miners can still raise/lower the gas limit;
- Blocks will, on average, only be 50% full. When they are >50% full, the
baseFeePerGasincreases until they are 50% full again, and similarly, if they are <50% full, thebaseFeePerGaswill decrease until there is sufficient demand (or it reaches its minimum value); - In times of high demand (think a new ICO/NFT drop/huge ETH price volatility), it is expected that blocks will be 100% full (e.g. 30m gas), which allows this increase in demand to be processed quicker.
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| In short, gas fees help keep the Ethereum network secure. By requiring a fee for every computation executed on the network, we prevent actors from spamming the network. In order to prevent accidental or hostile infinite loops or other computational wastage in code, each transaction is required to set a limit to how many computational steps of code execution it can use. The fundamental unit of computation is "gas". | ||
| Starting with [the London update](/history/#london), every block has a base fee, the minimum per gas price for inclusion in this block. Optionally, users can set a priority fee (tip). |
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Should we also make note EIP-1559 here during the introduction of the London changes?
Co-authored-by: Sam Richards <sbrichards@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Sam Richards <sbrichards@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Paul Wackerow <54227730+wackerow@users.noreply.github.com>
| @@ -55,7 +57,7 @@ Proof of work means the following: | |||
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| ## Block size {#block-size} | |||
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| A final important note is that blocks themselves are bounded in size. Each block has a block gas limit which is set by the network and the miners collectively: the total amount of gas expended by all transactions in the block must be less than the block gas limit. This is important because it ensures that blocks can’t be arbitrarily large. If blocks could be arbitrarily large, then less performant full nodes would gradually stop being able to keep up with the network due to space and speed requirements. The block gas limit at block 0 was initialized to 5,000; any miner who mines a new block can alter the gas limit by up to about 0.1% in either direction from the parent block gas limit. The gas limit as of April 2021 currently hovers around 15,000,000. | |||
| A final important note is that, as of with [the London update](/history/#london), blocks themselves are no longer bounded in size. Each block has a target size of 15 million gas but the size of blocks will increase or decrease in accordance with network demands, up until the block limit of 30 milion gas (2x target block size). The total amount of gas expended by all transactions in the block must be less than the block gas limit. This is important because it ensures that blocks can’t be arbitrarily large. If blocks could be arbitrarily large, then less performant full nodes would gradually stop being able to keep up with the network due to space and speed requirements. | |||
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A few clarifications:
- Blocks are still bounded in size, but at the fork block the block gas limit will double;
- After that blocks, miners can still raise/lower the gas limit;
- Blocks will, on average, only be 50% full. When they are >50% full, the
baseFeePerGasincreases until they are 50% full again, and similarly, if they are <50% full, thebaseFeePerGaswill decrease until there is sufficient demand (or it reaches its minimum value); - In times of high demand (think a new ICO/NFT drop/huge ETH price volatility), it is expected that blocks will be 100% full (e.g. 30m gas), which allows this increase in demand to be processed quicker.
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Implemented the suggested changes. Thanks for the review @timbeiko ✌️ |
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@minimalsm 💪🏻 🎉 Looking awesome, thanks for the hard work on this!
Description
Changes to pages to include changes introduced in London update
Related Issue: #3022 #3521