Key Insights
- The scalability of Ethereum was improved with the blast limit being increased to 21, allowing more rollup data in each block.
- Increasing blob targets enables more stable network performance, as well as lowering the base layer charges.
- Developers are still considering gas limit increases and future upgrades of Glamsterdam.
Ethereum scalability moved into a new phase on Wednesday after the network implemented its second Blob Parameter-Only (BPO) hard fork, a targeted upgrade designed to expand data capacity for rollups without altering core execution rules.
The change, activated at 1:01:11 UTC on Wednesday, increased the maximum number of blobs per block from 15 to 21 and raised the blob target from 10 to 14.
The network offers layer-2 systems increased space to batch more transactions off-chain and publish compressed data back to Ethereum to settle and secure, as an added benefit.
Developers view the BPO process as a way to scale cautiously while observing how nodes and infrastructure respond under higher data loads.
Expansion of scalability and blob capacity of Ethereum
Blobs are data containers introduced to accommodate rollups, temporary storage of large chunks of transaction data. Each blob can carry up to 128 kilobytes of data. With the new ceiling of 21 blobs per block, Ethereum can now handle roughly 2.6 megabytes of blob data in each block, up from about 1.9 megabytes under the previous limit.
https://twitter.com/terencechain/status/2008706514006257937
The blob target was increased to 14 in addition to the increased maximum. The target is the level to which the protocol tries to maintain itself when in normal operation, whereas the maximum is a short-term buffer when the demand is high.
The developers also tend to focus on the target as opposed to the cap, since extended use near the limit may cause a strain on the bandwidth of that node and storage needs.
The second BPO hard fork builds on the first such upgrade implemented in December. Since then, Ethereum scalability improvements tied to blobs have been associated with reduced competition for block space, as rollups increasingly move transaction data away from the base layer.
Effects on rollups and transaction costs
The expanded blob capacity allows rollups to batch more transactions at once, increasing throughput without directly adding congestion to Ethereum’s main execution layer.
In the past few years, developer observations have indicated that base-layer transaction charges have been less volatile since the initial BPO upgrade, in their opinion.
The reduced fee swings reflect lower pressure on block space as rollup data migrates to blobs rather than occupying execution resources. The second upgrade extends that trend by further increasing the room available for data publication.
Gas limit discussions following the BPO upgrade
With the second BPO hard fork now live, developers have reopened discussions about increasing Ethereum’s gas limit.
In mid-December, in an Ethereum All Core Developers call, it was discussed that the gas limit could be raised to $80 million.
Moreover, any gas limit increase would be considered separately compared to the blob parameters, and it would be necessary to monitor the node performance closely.
Developers have reported that the increased blob capacity gives one extra assurance in changing other settings related to throughput, although no definitive announcement has been made.
It is believed that the focus will later on in the year 2026 shift to the planned Glamsterdam hard fork. That upgrade will enable the gas limit to climb up to 200 million and parallel execution with Blocks Access Lists, described in Ethereum Improvement Proposal-7928.
A combination of these changes is aimed at pushing Ethereum scalability to new heights without giving up on the objectives of decentralization.
Different perceptions of resilience within networks
The scaling upgrades are coming at a larger discussion of how blockchain networks can determine resilience. In a recent update to the Ethereum Thrustless Manifesto, Vitalik Buterin wrote about resilience in terms of being able to survive a disastrous risk, including a political blacklist, infrastructure outage, developer loss, or asset seizure.
According to Buterin, Ethereum was designed to preserve user sovereignty under adverse conditions rather than to maximize efficiency.
Buterin stated that resilience is the game where anybody, anywhere in the world, can access the network and become a first-class participant, where resilience is sovereignty.
Co-founder of Solana, Anatoly Yakovenko, gave a different definition in response.
Yakovenko characterized resilience as the ability to synchronize large volumes of information globally at high throughput and low latency without trusted intermediaries.
Yakovenko used examples such as gigabit-per-second rates and millisecond-scale batch auctions as his benchmarks that networks would have to achieve reliably in case global systems to benefit.
