Nonce Cap

Abstract

This EIP caps the nonce at 2^64-2, reserving it for contracts with unusual behavior, as defined in other EIPs.

Motivation

This EIP is not terribly useful on its own, as it adds additional computation without any useful side effects. However, it can be used by other EIPs.

Specification

The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 and RFC 8174.

EOA Transactions

The nonce of a transaction originating from an EOA MUST be less than 2^64-2. If the nonce is either 2^64-1 or 2^64-2, the transaction MUST be invalid.

CREATE and CREATE2

If a nonce would be incremented to 2^64-1 by CREATE or CREATE2, it is instead set to 2^64-2. 2^64-1 is reserved for alias or other special contracts.

Rationale

Capping a nonce allows for contracts with special properties to be created, with their functionality based on their contract code. As such, only one nonce needs to be reserved.

Backwards Compatibility

This EIP requires a protocol upgrade, since it modifies consensus rules. The further restriction of nonce should not have an effect on accounts, as reaching a nonce of 2^64-2 is difficult.

Security Considerations

As it is not feasible for contract accounts to get to the nonce limit, any potential problems with opcodes that depend on the value of an account's nonce can be safely ignored.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.