Ethereum scales via Fusaka and EOF bytecode improvements

Scaling the data layer

Fusaka activated on December 3, 2025, after developers implemented PeerDAS and Verkle Trees to boost scalability. The upgrade raised the default block gas limit to 60 million from 45 million. PeerDAS (EIP-7594) allows nodes to verify data by sampling small, random portions instead of downloading entire data blobs. This mechanism reduces the bandwidth and storage requirements for validators. Verkle Trees compress cryptographic proofs into smaller structures to make verification faster. To handle the growing volume of Layer 2 data, EIP-7892 enables Blob Parameter Only forks to increase the target and maximum number of blobs between major upgrades. While Dencun established a target of 3 blobs, Fusaka allows for increases to levels such as 9 or 12. EIP-7918 ensures the blob fee market reacts to congestion by pinning a proportional reserve price under every blob, which prevents the blob fee from dropping to 1 wei when execution gas dominates. EIP-7642 requires client teams to support partial history expiry to reduce disk space requirements. EIP-7917 provides a deterministic proposer lookahead, allowing the Beacon Chain to identify upcoming block proposers for the next epoch. This helps prevent edge cases where validators manipulate the proposer schedule. Since Dencun, Layer 2 networks saw fee reductions of 80% to 99% as they used blobs to post transaction data. These blobs expire after 18 days, which limits the data storage load on the blockchain.

Bytecode improvements via EOF

The EVM Object Format (EOF) provides a structured, versioned container for EVM bytecode via EIP-3540. This format brings "code and data separation" to the execution layer. This separation helps on-chain code validators distinguish between code and data, which provides gas savings for Layer 2 scaling tools. Validation occurs during the contract creation process, which ensures every EOF-formatted contract remains valid for its life. This removes the runtime overhead of JUMPDEST analysis. The format also supports "static jumps" through EIP-4200 using instruction types like RJUMP, RJUMPI, and RJUMPV. EIP-4750 introduces subroutines through CALLF and RETF opcodes. EIP-5450 prevents stack underflow or overflow during execution. EIP-663 improves stack management via DUPN and SWAPN instructions. EIP-3860 limits the maximum size of initcode to 49152 bytes and adds a gas cost for each 32-byte chunk. Because the format includes a version number, it facilitates easier introduction of new features without breaking existing contracts. The EOFn prefix denotes the version number. Solidity supports this format, which helps reduce the maintenance burden for compilers. Developers avoid the need for ad-hoc editing of bytecode during deployment because the dedicated data section makes it trivial to store values. This design also makes the bytecode more amenable to transpilation for use in different virtual machines or SNARKs.

Network operations and security

Developers and validators manage new technical requirements to maintain network stability. EIP-7825 imposes a transaction gas limit cap of 16,777,216 to prevent DoS attacks as block limits rise. EIP-7934 sets a 10 MiB ceiling on the RLP-encoded execution block size, leaving a 2 MiB safety margin for consensus data. This limit prevents large blocks from slowing down network propagation. For validators, the amount of stake determines the data they must store for 18 days. Operators with 32 ETH have different responsibilities than those with 4096 ETH. You should monitor your hardware requirements. Can the network maintain decentralization as blob throughput increases? EIP-7883 increases the MODEXP gas cost to match actual computational requirements and prevents a single transaction from occupying too much block time. EIP-7883 raises the minimum charge from 200 to 500 gas and removes the one-third discount from EIP-2565. Additionally, the gas charge climbs faster for each extra byte when the exponent input exceeds 32 bytes. If the base or modulus exceeds 32 bytes, the cost rises in proportion to its size. For operators, the amount of stake determines the storage load. Cut-offs for these data responsibilities fall at 32, 320, 1024, 2048, and 4096 ETH.