- Ethereum has had trouble processing blocks carrying large numbers of data “blobs” since the December upgrade.
- The December upgrade, Fusaka, raised per-block blob capacity roughly eightfold from nine to a higher limit.
- Research from MigaLabs found blocks with many blobs are likelier to be dropped and warned this could threaten network stability.
- PandaOps analysis attributed much of the problem to validators delaying blocks for MEV, and developers favor a minor update to improve blob propagation first.
- Researchers urge caution and recommend not increasing blob capacity further until fixes and broader analysis are in place.
Ethereum nodes have struggled to process data-heavy blocks since the December upgrade that expanded blob capacity, raising concerns about network stability. Research from MigaLabs, which has worked with Lido DAO and the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, found blocks containing more blobs are far likelier to be dropped.
The upgrade, called Fusaka, increased the maximum blobs per block from nine to a level that can grow through smaller follow-up upgrades. In the days after deployment developers enacted a first mini-upgrade that raised the cap to 15 and a second on January 7 that moved it to 21 blobs per block.
Some validators are testing the new limits; while average blob counts have fallen, the few blocks that push the limit tend to cause the next block to fail. PandaOps analysis found a pattern of “timing games,” where validators delay publishing to capture MEV, may explain much of the instability.
MigaLabs warned that if the issue continues or worsens it could threaten network stability, and its founder urged developers to pause further increases. “My intention was not to be alarmist, but to raise a signal to the core developers and researchers that’s saying, ‘We need to take a look at this,'” the founder wrote, and added, “It’s important to not increase even more [blob] capacity until we fully understand what’s going on.”
Developers discussed the rapid capacity change in a December livestream that noted the upgrade could be dialed up quickly but advised caution; during that stream Alex Stokes said, “We could say here, in just a few minutes, dial this knob up 8x,” and warned, “Given this is a very new technique, and we’re not sure how the network will respond, this is not the wisest decision.”
Engineers favor a minor update to let Ethereum spread blob data more efficiently before any further capacity increases. As one analyst put it, “I’m not worried about the network at the moment based on the analysis that I did,” but teams recommend more holistic analysis and fixes before raising blob limits further.
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