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Buterin Floats Trustless On-Chain Gas Futures to Lock In Ethereum Fees

The idea extends EIP-1559’s base-fee model to create forward price signals for high-volume users seeking cost certainty.

Overview

  • Vitalik Buterin proposed a market to buy commitments for future gas usage on-chain, effectively creating futures tied to BASEFEE.
  • The concept focuses on predictable, hedgeable costs rather than lowering today’s fees, turning volatile expenses into forward-priced commitments.
  • Heavy users such as exchanges, rollups, wallets, traders, and enterprises could lock in costs for specified time windows to stabilize operations.
  • No formal Ethereum Improvement Proposal or implementation timeline has been filed, and earlier experiments like Oiler did not achieve broad liquidity.
  • Analysts highlight open challenges including attracting liquidity, preventing validator-influenced manipulation, and integrating the design with existing tools and rollups.