Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has put forward a new Ethereum improvement protocol, known as EIP-7706, which focuses on a fresh gas model for transaction call data. Currently, Ethereum-based transactions have two types of gas fees: one for transaction execution and another for storage. However, Buterin’s proposal introduces a third form of gas specifically for call data. This means that the Ethereum blockchain will assign a distinct charge to data transferred during transactions, separate from the costs associated with executing contract code or storing data.
The new gas model will introduce a transaction type that includes max_basefee and priority_fee as a vector, providing values for execution gas, blob gas, and call data gas. Currently, the base fee adjustment uses separate mechanisms for transaction execution costs and data storage in the form of blobs. However, Buterin suggests that with the addition of a third type of gas fee, the Ethereum network should adopt a unified approach for all three types of gas fees.
The objective of this move is to reduce the transaction costs associated with data-heavy transactions that may not be computationally intensive. If the proposal is accepted, the Ethereum network will be responsible for determining the call data costs independently of other costs. Buterin suggests managing all three forms of gas through a dynamic model that adjusts fees simultaneously.
By implementing a separate gas fee for call data, Buterin believes that the “theoretical max call data size of a block would be greatly reduced, while basic economic analysis suggests that on average, call data would become considerably cheaper.”
Despite the primary goal of transitioning from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism being scalability and lower costs, the Ethereum network has faced challenges with gas fees for years. However, the changes introduced so far have not delivered the promised improvements in scalability, leading to the introduction of subsequent EIPs to assist the network.