EIP-2780: Reduce intrinsic cost of transactions

Discussion thread for EIP-2780: Reduce intrinsic transaction gas

(Note: 16,340 is a back-of-the-napkin estimate until we can perform better load testing on a testnet and analyze its performance)

Inspired by this thread: https://twitter.com/uriklarman/status/1281972141055934464?s=20

If the account is not initialized, then would it make a difference? For example if we consider 20000 for writing to an uninitialized storage, (16 * 110) + 2 * 800 + 2 * 20,000 + 3000 = 46,360.

You’re correct. I need to update the EIP to better outline both scenarios, highlighting the discrepancy.

I think there are two potential (and compatible) EIPs here:

  1. Significantly adjusting down the 21K gas cost for sending Tx - keeping everything else as-is.
  2. Differentiating between sending Tx to a new account vs an existing account.

I want to outline my arguments for the 1st approach, which I believe delivers 90% of the value to the Ethereum community, can be achieved much quicker, carry very little risk, complexity or debt, and is incremental in nature.
However, I don’t want to “hog” your EIP on this, which feels to me leaning towards the 2nd approach.
Should I fork this with my own take or should I add another EIP?

@uri don’t worry about hogging the EIP, please feel free to fork it and add in your outline. I welcome it and look forward to reading your arguments. Although I don’t think there is any need worrying about this until after you complete your outline, I feel strongly that 1 should not be done unless 2 is also done. Please add yourself as an author to the EIP so you can automerge changes in the future. Thanks.

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I hope I didn’t mess up the process, but I submitted my draft for this to your branch.

This EIP was discussed by @uri in ACD #93.

The main points of feedback were:

  • generally speaking, there are other more concerning problems with the network (state size growth) that should be addressed before more EIPs which negatively impact this are accepted
  • some calculations should be double checked, especially the state size growth when new accounts are created
  • approximately 3x as many transactions will be possible within a block, so how will the network handle the increased block size?