HIP-1249 introduces a fundamental shift in how Hedera throttles smart contract execution, replacing the conservative 15 million gas-per-second limit with a precise operations-per-second model that unlocks significantly more throughput.
This new approach measures and prices each EVM opcode, precompile, and system contract based on actual computational demands — enabling decentralized applications to operate at scale on Hedera without sacrificing Ethereum compatibility or network security.
Below, we explore the technical innovations and ecosystem impact of HIP-1249, and how it empowers Hedera to support high-throughput Web3 applications while maintaining predictable fees and high performance.
Breaking Down the Bottleneck
Smart contracts on Hedera currently operate under a 15 million gas-per-second throttle, using gas as both a billing mechanism and a performance limiter. Gas values, inherited from Ethereum for compatibility, provide only rough estimates of computational work.
Testing reveals dramatic variance: cryptographic operations process at approximately 35–40 million gas per second, while Merkle database operations such as SLOAD and SSTORE approach nearly a billion gas per second. To protect against worst-case scenarios, the network prioritizes security by enforcing conservative limits.
This security-first approach impacts both cost and throughput. The 80% minimum charge rule bills at least 80% of a transaction’s gas limit regardless of actual usage. Real-world testing demonstrates significant headroom — Uniswap achieved over 150 million gas per second on Hedera, more than ten times the current throttle.
While Ethereum has evolved toward variable block sizes with EIP-1559, Hedera has historically maintained fixed limits to ensure predictable performance. HIP-1249 addresses these constraints while preserving the network’s security guarantees.
HIP-1249’s Solution: Operations-Based Throttling
HIP-1249 separates billing from throttling entirely. Gas continues to serve its original role — determining user fees and preventing runaway execution — while a new operations cost (“ops cost”) system governs actual network throttling.
Each EVM opcode, precompile, and system contract is assigned a precisely measured ops cost based on hardware benchmarking plus safety margins. This decoupling preserves full Ethereum compatibility for gas calculations while allowing Hedera to throttle based on real computational performance rather than estimates designed for a different network.
The implementation introduces several critical changes without requiring any application code modifications:
- Removal of the gas-per-second throttle from both frontend and backend layers
- Introduction of an ops-per-second throttle enforced exclusively at the consensus layer
- Elimination of the 80% minimum charge rule — users pay exactly for gas consumed
- Preservation of per-transaction gas limits to prevent unbounded execution
These changes deliver immediate cost savings and performance improvements while maintaining the predictability and security Hedera is known for.
How It Works: Technical Implementation
Every operation receives a precise ops cost through extensive hardware benchmarking. Networks execute each opcode, precompile, and system contract thousands of times on representative hardware, measuring real execution time.
Safety margins of 20–50% are added, and the slowest hardware measurements are used to ensure conservative estimates. These ops costs are stored as network configuration in file 0.0.121.
Unlike gas values shared across all EVM chains, ops costs are Hedera-specific and tuned to the network’s infrastructure, enabling dramatic throughput gains.
During execution, the EVM tracks gas and ops separately:
- Gas functions exactly as before for billing and Ethereum compatibility
- Ops units deduct from the consensus throttle bucket based on actual work performed
If the ops bucket empties mid-execution, transactions fail with CONSENSUS_GAS_EXHAUSTED, paying only the intrinsic gas fee. This indicates network congestion rather than faulty contract logic.
For mirror node users, the gasConsumed field will now equal gasUsed. The gasConsumed field remains for backward compatibility, but new integrations should reference gasUsed moving forward.
Transforming the Ecosystem: Real-World Impact
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
DeFi protocols such as SaucerSwap and Bonzo Finance can process more swaps, liquidations, and yield-farming operations. Eliminating the 80% minimum charge improves capital efficiency, enabling deeper liquidity, tighter spreads, and better user experiences.
Enterprise Applications
HIP-1249 enables high-throughput enterprise applications at scale. Supply chain platforms track more product movements, tokenization solutions meet business velocity requirements, and multi-party workflows execute reliably — all without code changes or compatibility tradeoffs.
AI Agents and Automation
As agentic AI emerges at the intersection of decentralized networks and automation, HIP-1249 enables autonomous agents to perform complex computations, rebalance markets more frequently, and process more oracle data — without being constrained by conservative throttles.
Stakeholder Advantages
Developers gain major performance improvements without touching code, along with precise cost control and full Ethereum tooling compatibility.
Users pay exactly for gas used, experience faster transaction completion during peak demand, and benefit from more reliable DeFi execution.
The network achieves better resource utilization, enabling more high-value transactions per second while maintaining security and predictability.
Developer Guide: What You Need to Know
Existing applications require no modifications, but developers should be aware of three important changes:
- Exact billing: The 80% minimum charge is gone. If a transaction uses 2M gas, you pay for 2M — not 12M.
- New failure mode: CONSENSUS_GAS_EXHAUSTED indicates temporary network congestion and is inexpensive to retry.
- Gas limits still matter: Limits protect against runaway execution without penalizing conservative estimates.
Testing and Optimization
Developers can begin testing immediately on testnet with no configuration changes. Monitor gas usage for cost analysis and transaction success rates to understand throttle behavior during peak throughput.
Optimization should focus on transaction batching rather than gas reduction. Bundling related operations reduces exposure to throttle exhaustion and improves execution efficiency.
The Road Ahead
By measuring actual computational work instead of using gas as a proxy, HIP-1249 allows Hedera to scale existing enterprise use cases and unlock new classes of high-throughput decentralized applications.
Developers benefit from immediate performance gains, users see lower fees, and the network better utilizes its resources. HIP-1249 further cements Hedera’s position as the premier network for high-throughput Web3 applications — delivering on its mission to be the trust layer of the digital economy.
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