Vitalik Buterin proposes new ‘multidimensional’ fee structure for Ethereum

Calculating various gas prices for different resource usage may streamline the current fee structure for Ethereum according to Buterin

Vitalik Buterin proposes new ‘multidimensional’ fee structure for Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder vitalik Buterin has put his thinking cap for again trying to improve the current fee structure for the network. 

The proposal names "Multidimensional EIP 1559" was spread out in a blog post on 5 Jan in which Buterin noted that different resources in the Ethereum Virtual Machine(EVM) have various requests in terms of gas usage.

He added that there are different limits for short-term "burst" capacity instead of "sustained" capacity within the EVM citing examples of block data storage. witness information storage and block state size changes. 

“The scheme we have today, where all resources are combined together into a single multidimensional resource ('gas'), does a poor job at handling these differences.”

The problem is that directing every one of the various resources into a single one leads to "very sub-optimal gas costs" when these limits are misaligned, he added.

Buterin outlined his fairly complicated proposed changes with a lot of technical main, but in a nutshell, the proposal offered two potential solutions using "multidimensional" pricing.

The first choice would calculate the gas cost for resources, for example, call data and storage by dividing the base fee for each unit of the resource by the total base fee. The base fee is a fixed-per-block network fee included in the EIP-1559 algorithm.

The second more complex choice sets a base fee for using resources but includes burst limits for every asset. There would also be "priority fees" which are set as a percentage and calculated by multiplying the percentage by the base fee.

He expressed that the drawback to the complex fee structure is that "block builders would not have the option to just accept transactions in high to a low order of fee per gas." They would need to adjust the dimensions and solve additional mathematical problems.

It remains to be seen whether the proposal will be passed since the priority at the moment is the next big updated. The Ethereum network is right now gearing up for "the merge" which will dock the Ethereum blockchain with the Beacon Chain and effectively end Proof of work testing is already occurring on the kintsugi test net and full deployment is expected in the first quarter of this current year. 

EIP-1559 was deployed in August as part of the London upgrade to burn a portion of the transaction charges to make gas pricing more predictable. Since it went live, 1.36 million ETH worth approx $4.7 billion current prices have been destroyed according to the burn tracker.

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