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TIP-1010: Mainnet Gas Parameters

Protocol Version: T1
Status: Mainnet
Authors: Dankrad Feist @dankrad
Related: TIP-1000, Payment Lane Specification, Sub block Specification

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Abstract

This TIP specifies the initial gas parameters for Tempo mainnet, including base fee pricing, payment lane capacity, and main transaction gas limits. These parameters are calibrated to support Tempo’s target of approximately 20,000 TPS for payment transactions while maintaining economically sustainable fee levels.

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Motivation

Tempo is designed as a high-throughput blockchain optimized for stablecoin payments. To achieve this, the gas parameters must be carefully calibrated to:
  1. Enable high throughput: Support ~20,000 TPS for payment transactions
  2. Maintain low fees: Target 0.1 cent per standard TIP-20 transfer
  3. Prevent spam: Ensure fees are high enough to deter abuse
  4. Balance capacity: Allocate appropriate gas limits between payment lane and general transactions
The parameters defined in this TIP represent the initial mainnet configuration and may be adjusted through future governance processes.

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Specification

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Base Fee

Value: 2 × 10^10 attodollars (20 billion attodollars per gas) Rationale:
  • A standard TIP-20 transfer costs approximately 50,000 gas
  • At this basefee: 50,000 gas × 20 billion attodollars/gas = 10^15 attodollars = 1,000 microdollars = $0.001
  • This targets approximately 0.1 cent (1,000 microdollars) per TIP-20 transfer
Units: Attodollars (10^-18 USD) are the gas price unit. TIP-20 tokens use 6 decimals, so 1 token unit = 1 microdollar (10^-6 USD). Conversion: attodollars / 10^12 = microdollars.
The base fee may fluctuate based on network demand through the existing EIP-1559-style mechanism. This value represents the target equilibrium base fee.

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Payment Lane Gas Limit

Value: 500,000,000 gas per block (total block gas limit) Rationale:
  • At 50,000 gas per TIP-20 transfer: 500,000,000 / 50,000 = 10,000 transfers per block
  • With 500ms block time: 10,000 × 2 = 20,000 TPS for payment transactions
  • This capacity supports Tempo’s target throughput for payment use cases
Constraints:
  • Only transactions qualifying for the payment lane (simple TIP-20 transfers, memos, etc.) may exceed the general_gas_limit
  • Complex contract interactions use the general gas limit instead
Shared capacity model: The payment lane is non-dedicated. General and payment transactions selected by the proposer share the non-shared gas budget (block_gas_limit - shared_gas_limit = 450M). General transactions are capped at general_gas_limit (30M), guaranteeing that at least 420M gas remains available for proposer payment transactions. The remaining 50M (shared_gas_limit) is reserved for validator subblocks as defined in the Sub-block Specification.

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Main Transaction Gas Limit

Value: 30,000,000 gas per block (general_gas_limit) Rationale:
  • Aligned with the transaction gas cap to ensure maximum-sized contract deployments can be included in a block
  • Supports general smart contract interactions beyond simple payments
  • Provides capacity for:
    • Contract deployments (including max 24KB contracts)
    • DEX swaps
    • Complex multi-step transactions
    • Other non-payment use cases
Transactions exceeding 16,000,000 gas are not recommended. The elevated gas limits (30M) exist solely to accommodate maximum-sized contract deployments under TIP-1000 state creation costs. Applications should not rely on transactions consuming more than 16M gas for normal operations. When storage pricing is moved to a separate mechanism (e.g., storage rent or state expiry), the transaction gas cap is expected to return to 16,000,000 gas.

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Transaction Gas Cap

Value: 30,000,000 gas per transaction Rationale:
  • Increased from the previous 16,000,000 gas limit
  • Accommodates deployment of maximum-size contracts (24,576 bytes per EIP-170) under TIP-1000 state creation costs:
    • Base transaction cost: 21,000 gas
    • Calldata for initcode (up to 49,152 bytes per EIP-3860): ~500,000-800,000 gas
    • CREATE base cost (TIP-1000, includes keccak/codesize fields): 500,000 gas (replaces old 32,000)
    • Initcode execution: variable (~3,000 gas minimum)
    • Contract code storage (TIP-1000): 24,576 bytes × 1,000 gas/byte = 24,576,000 gas
    • Account creation (TIP-1000): 250,000 gas
    • Total: ~25,850,000-26,150,000 gas (fits within 30M limit)

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Gas Schedule Summary

ParameterValuePurpose
Base fee2 × 10^10 attodollarsTarget 0.1 cent (1,000 microdollars) per TIP-20 transfer
Total block gas limit500,000,000 gas/blockTotal block capacity
Non-shared gas limit450,000,000 gas/blockProposer pool transactions
Shared gas limit50,000,000 gas/blockValidator subblocks (see Sub-block Specification)
General gas limit30,000,000 gas/blockCap for non-payment transactions
Transaction gas cap30,000,000 gasAllow max-size contract deployment

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Economic Analysis

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Fee Revenue Projections

At full payment lane utilization:
  • 10,000 transfers per block × 1,000 microdollars = 10,000,000 microdollars ($10) per block
  • At 2 blocks/second: $20/second
  • Daily: ~$1,728,000 in base fees from payment lane alone

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Cost Per Operation

OperationGas CostUSD Cost (at target base fee)
TIP-20 transfer (existing recipient)50,000$0.001 (0.1 cent / 1,000 microdollars)
TIP-20 transfer (new recipient)300,000$0.006 (0.6 cent / 6,000 microdollars)
First transaction from new account300,000$0.006 (0.6 cent / 6,000 microdollars)
Small contract deployment (1KB)~1,800,000$0.036 (3.6 cents / 36,000 microdollars)
Max contract deployment (24,576 bytes)~26,200,000$0.524 (~52 cents / 524,000 microdollars)

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Invariants

  1. Base Fee Floor: The base fee MUST NOT fall below a minimum threshold that would enable economically viable spam attacks.
  2. Payment Lane Priority: Transactions qualifying for the payment lane MUST be able to consume up to the remaining block gas capacity (total gas limit minus gas already consumed by general transactions).
  3. Shared Gas Pool: Proposer pool transactions (payment and general) share the non-shared gas budget (450M). General transactions are additionally constrained by general_gas_limit (30M). The remaining 50M is reserved for validator subblocks.
  4. Transaction Gas Cap: No single transaction MUST be allowed to consume more than the transaction gas cap (30,000,000 gas).
  5. Block Gas Validity: A block MUST be invalid if either:
    • Payment lane transactions exceed the payment lane gas limit
    • General transactions exceed the general gas limit