Ethereum Developers Want to Combine Gas Estimation & Call Results

Gas estimation is critical for predicting the computational cost of executing transactions, ensuring that users send enough gas to avoid transaction failures. The call result, on the other hand, refers to the output returned by executing the transaction.

The core issue revolves around combining these two operations into a single call to simplify processes for developers and improve performance. This would reduce redundancy and enhance efficiency for developers interacting with Ethereum smart contracts.

By combining these processes, Developers avoid making two separate calls, reducing the overhead and latency. This method ensures that the gas estimate aligns closely with the actual gas usage, avoiding discrepancies that arise from separate estimations and execution.

Developers advocated for introducing a versioning system (V1, V2, V3) to manage these changes in a structured manner. The argument is that versioning provides flexibility to add new features without breaking existing implementations.

• Version 1 (V1): Represents the current standard, which lacks the combined gas estimation and call result feature.
• Version 2 (V2): Would introduce the combined operation while preserving backward compatibility with V1.
• Version 3 (V3): Could further refine the process, depending on developer feedback and adoption of V2.

The Ethereum community often disagrees on the right time to introduce new versions. Some developers prefer a conservative approach to avoid unnecessary complexity, while others push for faster iteration to address evolving needs.

The general sentiment is that versioning will eventually be adopted out of necessity, as the pain points associated with the current fragmented approach become more evident. By reducing redundant calls, network congestion can decrease, leading to faster and more reliable transaction processing.

References: Eth multicall Meeting Dec 30, 2024