1/ After protodanksharing (aka 4844), users have seen gas spikes in Layer 2's, particularly at @base But why did gas spike in Layer 2 if 4844 was supposed to reduce fees in Layer 2s? Let's delve into how L2 gas calculations work and what next for L2's:
Rollups are essentially blockchains, meaning they have a capacity limit. When a rollup reaches its maximum capacity, the base fee increases, resulting in higher fees for users. However, what exactly determines a rollup's capacity?
A Rollup user basically pays fee for three things:
- Data Availability Cost.
- Proof Verification Cost (only for ZK Rollups)
- Execution Cost.
Data Availability and Proof Verification costs are needed for Rollups to inherit security from Ethereum.
Before 4844, the amount of data that rollups could post to Ethereum in a block was very limited. This restriction constrained the throughput of rollups due to Ethereum's data limit for what rollups can submit. As a result, gas spikes in L2's were a rare occurrence
After protodanksharding, storing data on Ethereum became significantly cheaper than before. With the decrease in data storage costs, we've seen the execution limit of L2. Currently, users are demonstrating increased demand for L2's execution.
Fortunately, the @base and other L2 teams are actively working to increase the execution capacity of L2s. This is crucial for smart accounts because without affordable gas prices on L2s, we will continue to see escalating fees for smart accounts. This was my thesis when we transformed EIP-7212 into RIP. Many people told me that gas prices on L2 were almost zero, questioning the need for RIP-7212 on their chain. Now, with the recent gas spikes on L2, we see the answer.
What's next for L2's? I'm extremetely looking forward to see performance optimized EVM's (zkSync) and non EVM's (Eclipse, Fuel) to come into play. Regarding EVMs, I'm not sure if solely increasing the gas limit would be beneficial as it also leads to State Growth.
