EthereumJS on X: Same 1-wei transfer. Recipient never existed. regular: 21,000 state: 183,600 you must set…

⛽ Thread 1 — the 21,000-gas myth.

A plain ETH transfer was always 21,000 gas.
On Amsterdam, that number still exists — and it will still brick wallets.

Here's why. 🧵

EthereumJS Verified account @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Amsterdam just got a public playground. 🐻‍❄️

Platåberget — Glamsterdam's first public testnet — is live.
EthereumJS v10.1.3 is a close-to-ready 14-EIP Amsterdam preview.

JavaScript is just the easy on-ramp. The fork is the story.

🧵
View quoted post on X

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

Status quo (today, mainnet):

Send 1 wei to an address that has never been used.
gasLimit: 21000
It works.

Wallets, SDKs, and estimators baked that in for a decade.

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

Amsterdam splits gas into two dimensions:

• regular — execution (the old meter)
• state — creating new accounts, storage, code

You pay the *sum*.
The block is full when *either* dimension hits the limit.

eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8037

eips.ethereum.org EIP-8037: State Creation Gas Cost Increase Harmonization, increase and separate metering of state creation gas costs to mitigate state growth and unblock scaling

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

Same 1-wei transfer. Recipient never existed.

regular: 21,000
state: 183,600
you must set gasLimit ≥ 204,600

183,600 = 120 bytes × 1,530

Use 21,000 → out of gas. Tx included, ETH doesn't move.

Replies

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

Wait — 21,000 is still there?

Yes. EIP-2780 just unpacks it:

12,000 sender / signature
3,000 touch the recipient
6,000 write value

That's regular gas only.
Creating the account is *runtime state* gas now.

eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2780

eips.ethereum.org EIP-2780: Resource-Based Intrinsic Transaction Gas Decompose the flat intrinsic transaction cost into explicit primitives priced to match the resources a transaction actually consumes

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

EIP-8038 is the sibling: touching *existing* state also got more expensive.

Together they make a ~200M gas floor safer.

eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8038

eips.ethereum.org EIP-8038: State-Access Gas Cost Update Increases the gas cost of state-access operations to reflect Ethereum's larger state

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

Install (Node 20+, any OS):

mkdir amsterdam-gas && cd amsterdam-gas
npm init -y
npm i @ethereumjs/vm@10.1.3 @ethereumjs/block@10.1.3 @ethereumjs/common@10.1.3 @ethereumjs/tx@10.1.3 @ethereumjs/util@10.1.3 tsx

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

Copy the example, name it runTxGasDimensions.ts, then:

npx tsx runTxGasDimensions.ts

github.com/ethereumjs/eth…

github.com ethereumjs-monorepo/packages/vm/examples/runTxGasDimensions.ts at master · ethereumjs/ethereumjs-... Ethereum L1 Protocol Stack and EVM in TypeScript. Contribute to ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo development by creating an account on GitHub.

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

You should print:

regular: 21000
state: 183600
recommended gasLimit: 204600

That's the whole EIP in one transfer.

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

The gotcha:

If a wallet still sends gasLimit 21000 to a never-used address, the tx is included and reverts.

Existing recipients: still ~21,000 regular, 0 extra state.

Estimators must look at state, not a constant.

EthereumJS @EFJavaScript Aug 25

Replying to @EFJavaScript

One extra wrinkle (EIP-7778):

totalGasSpent = what the sender pays
blockGasSpent = what fills the block
(refunds do *not* shrink the block)

On this transfer they match.
On SSTORE-heavy txs they won't.

Experimental — not production.
Next: Block-Level Access Lists.

[END OF THREAD ]