Ethereum privacy proposal gas limit falls short of benchmark costs
Ethereum (ETH)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
bitcoinethereumnews.com reports that a Sept. 5 proposal for EIP-8141 sets a 100,000-gas public propagation floor for privacy transactions. Contributor AnkushinDaniil submitted this open change to allow capable nodes to accept heavier transactions locally without guaranteeing network-wide propagation. However, a Sept. 2 benchmark by mmjahanara indicates that an optimized Groth16 proof verifier requires 190,628 gas, exceeding the proposed limit.
The cryptographic pairing check alone accounts for 181,000 gas, leaving the 100,000-gas cap insufficient for public inclusion. The full model estimates 211,828 gas for a single-note spend and 351,828 gas for an eight-note spend. These figures include overhead and a 20,000-execution-gas charge per nullifier.
The benchmark author recommends at least 250,000 gas for typical transactions, which remains below the eight-note model total. This discrepancy suggests that allowing local acceptance does not ensure wider network support for privacy designs like Tornado Cash and RAILGUN.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for ETH, measured when this story was written up on 8 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio spot data for Ethereum shows a price of $2,490.16 with a 1-hour buy ratio of 54.1%, indicating immediate short-term buying interest. This contrasts with a 4-hour buy ratio of 39.3%, suggesting that the buying pressure is fading over a slightly longer timeframe. The 24-hour buy ratio sits at 47.4%, showing a near-even split between buyers and sellers over the full day. Volume delta data reveals a net inflow of $1,315,616 in the last hour, while the 4-hour delta shows a net outflow of $15,232,972. The 24-hour volume delta is -$32,989,726, indicating that sellers have dominated the daily flow. CVD for the 24-hour close is -$30,910,164, confirming that selling pressure has outweighed buying pressure over the day.
The latest daily buy ratio of 46.8% sits at the 16th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 49.5% - weaker buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for ETH, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 50.7%, making the current 24-hour ratio of 47.4% slightly below the weekly norm. The volume delta for the 8-day period totals +$54,002,268, contrasting with the recent 24-hour net outflow. Volume was measured at 0.94x the average, indicating slightly lower than usual trading activity. The price changed +0.9% over 8 days, with only 3 of 7 days showing net buying. This suggests the current day is part of a generally balanced but slightly subdued weekly trend rather than an unusual spike in activity.