Ethereum could soon become dramatically faster if a new proposal by Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist is adopted. Feist has introduced Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 9698, aiming to scale Ethereum’s gas limit by 100 times over the next four years. If approved, the plan would push Ethereum's transaction capacity from 20 transactions per second (TPS) today to around 2,000 TPS.

EIP-9698 suggests a predictable gas limit growth starting around June 1, gradually multiplying by a factor of 10 over two years before one final tenfold leap. This would increase Ethereum’s current gas limit of 36 million to 3.6 billion, theoretically allowing around 6,000 transactions per block. Feist believes this strategy would make Ethereum far more competitive against blockchains like Solana, which handles between 800 to 1,050 TPS and claims a maximum of 65,000 TPS.

Feist acknowledged the proposal may initially strain less-optimized nodes and slow block propagation times. However, he emphasized the gradual increase would give developers and node operators enough time to adapt. This marks a major shift for Ethereum, which has mostly focused on scaling through layer-2 solutions in recent years—a strategy some critics argue has fragmented the network and hurt user experience.

Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are also preparing EIP-9678, which could boost the gas limit by four times during the upcoming Fusaka hard fork, expected by late 2025. Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Pectra, is set to launch in May, continuing the platform’s aggressive push for scalability and efficiency.