Ethereum's Speed Boost May Break Millions of Smart Contracts
Ethereum's plan to triple network speed could have an unexpected consequence: breaking millions of existing smart contracts.
The Ethereum Foundation has proposed two new protocols, EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, which aim to increase base-layer throughput by three times. The proposal involves aligning gas charges with the network resources each operation consumes.
However, this move will raise state-creation gas costs, which could break contracts that rely on hardcoded limits or fixed stipends. According to the Ethereum Foundation, approximately 174 million transactions would need more gas to succeed under EIP-8037, while around 84.7 million transactions would require a higher limit under EIP-8038.
The proposals also highlight the need for wallets, RPC providers, indexers, node tooling, and gas estimators to update their software to account for the new costs. Frontends and bundlers will also need to stop relying on cached constants or limits calibrated to the old schedule.