Vitalik Buterin drafts EIP-7706, proposing new calldata gas type for Ethereum
Quick Take
- Vitalik Buterin proposed EIP-7706, suggesting a new type of gas fee specifically for calldata.
- Buterin also described a system that adjusts fees for all three types of gas — execution, blob and calldata — in a unified manner.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal, EIP-7706, suggesting a new category of gas for transaction calldata.
Ethereum transactions currently involve two main types of gas: one for execution, which covers the computational effort required to process a transaction, and one for storage, which is the cost related to storing data with “blobs.”
Buterin's proposal recommends establishing a third type of gas specifically for calldata, which is the segment of an Ethereum transaction that carries data sent to smart contracts when functions are invoked.
This latest proposal was introduced just days after Buterin — along with co-authors Sam Wilson, Ansgar Dietrichs, and Matt Garnett — proposed improvements to account abstraction in EIP-7702.
What’s the latest proposal about?
Introducing a dedicated gas type for calldata means that the Ethereum network will assign specific costs to the data transmitted in transactions, distinct from the costs associated with executing contract code or storing data.
If the proposal is accepted, the network will adjust prices for transmitting this data independently of other costs, aiming to reduce gas fees for transactions that are data-heavy but not necessarily computationally intensive.
Buterin also proposed managing all three types of gas — execution, blob and calldata — using a system that adjusts fees simultaneously, thereby streamlining the process.
The proposal suggests a new transaction type that provides max_basefee and priority_fee as a vector, providing values for execution gas, blob gas and calldata gas, according to Buterin.
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