Ethereum Privacy Push Hit by Gas Allowance Shortfall

Ethereum's privacy push is facing a numbers problem. A recent benchmark by mmjahanara reports that proof verification for certain transactions requires nearly twice the proposed gas allowance of 100,000 gas.

The issue stems from EIP-8141, which proposes a new transaction design called Frames. The current draft caps signature checks and execution in the initial validation phase through payment approval at 100,000 gas. However, the benchmark reports an optimized Groth16 proof verifier requiring 190,628 gas for transactions that need to be verified.

The proposed change to EIP-8141 would allow some Ethereum nodes to accept heavier transactions locally without guaranteeing network-wide propagation. This means that while certain nodes could handle more expensive proofs, it wouldn't necessarily ensure wider network support.