EIP-7923: A Sparse-Page-Based Memory Model for the EVM

EIP-7923 enables 64MB of memory allocation per transaction through a sparse-page-based memory model with linearized gas costs. Today, the EVM’s quadratic memory pricing — designed to prevent DoS attacks — limits memory usage to about 3MB per transaction and lacks modern memory management features like stack and heap allocation, resulting in real inefficiencies for compute-heavy contracts. EIP-7923 replaces quadratic pricing with a linear model, unlocking up to 64MB of memory per transaction. We explain how this is achieved through a virtual memory system implemented using POSIX mmap, present gas-cost measurements from real-world hardware benchmarks, and justify the 64MB cap as a security-critical balance that prevents DoS risk, particularly in concurrent eth_call scenarios.

Speakers: Qi Zhou

Track: Core Protocol