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EIP-7623
EIP-7623 raises calldata gas costs to reduce block size variance and align with EIP-4844, improving Ethereum’s efficiency.EIP-7623 increases calldata costs for data-heavy transactions, stabilizing block size and preparing for EIP-4844 changes.

EIP-7623

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What is this EIP about?

EIP-7623 proposes increasing the gas cost of calldata, particularly for transactions that are primarily data-heavy, to reduce Ethereum's maximum block size and its variance.

It aims to address inefficiencies caused by large blocks and align calldata costs with upcoming changes from EIP-4844 (blobs for data availability).

Why is this EIP needed?

Ethereum's calldata costs have not been updated since EIP-2028, while block sizes have continued to grow due to rollups posting large amounts of data. The current cost structure allows data-heavy blocks to occupy excessive space, creating inefficiencies in bandwidth and storage.

EIP-4844 introduces blobs for data availability, which necessitates recalibrating calldata pricing to accommodate these changes while maintaining efficient resource utilization.

This EIP focuses on gas optimization and scalability. It ensures fair pricing for calldata usage and prepares the network for handling larger amounts of data introduced by rollups and blobs.

What does this EIP propose, and how does it function?

  • Proposal details:
    • New calldata cost formula: Introduces a floor cost (TOTAL_COST_FLOOR_PER_TOKEN = 10) for calldata-heavy transactions. The gas cost for calldata is adjusted based on the ratio of gas spent on EVM operations to gas spent on calldata.
    • Reduced block size: Limits the maximum block size to ~0.72 MB (compressed) by increasing calldata costs for data-heavy transactions.
    • No impact on most users: Regular transactions that use calldata sparingly retain the original pricing (4/16 gas per byte), ensuring minimal disruption.
  • Mechanisms:

The current transaction gas cost formula:

tx.gasUsed = (21000 + STANDARD_TOKEN_COST * tokens_in_calldata + execution_gas_used + isContractCreation * ...)

is replaced with:

tx.gasUsed = max(STANDARD_TOKEN_COST * tokens_in_calldata + execution_gas_used + ..., 
                 TOTAL_COST_FLOOR_PER_TOKEN * tokens_in_calldata)
  • Transactions must cover the calldata floor price regardless of execution costs, ensuring data-heavy transactions are properly priced.

What are the security implications of this EIP?

  • Potential risks:
    • Bundling incentives: Users may attempt to combine multiple transactions to save gas costs, but this is already supported and manageable under ERC-4337.
    • Backward compatibility: Wallets and node software must update gas estimation logic. Failure to do so could lead to underpricing transactions, causing failures.
  • Mitigations:
    • Wallet and RPC updates: Updates to gas estimation methods will ensure compatibility with the new pricing rules.
    • Block size reduction benefits: By limiting block size variance, network security and performance are improved, outweighing potential risks like minor bundling optimizations.
    • Transaction bundling challenges (trust and coordination) make exploitation impractical at scale.

This EIP is designed to improve efficiency while maintaining Ethereum's scalability and usability for most users.

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