Ethereum developers have marked March 13 as the big day for the long-awaited Dencun upgrade on the mainnet. This upgrade was set during a recent coordinating call. Signaling a significant step forward for the Ethereum blockchain since April 2023. The focus of the Dencun upgrade revolves around its “proto-danksharding” feature, aimed at reducing transaction costs on auxiliary “layer-2” networks built on Ethereum.
The layer-2 networks
During the call, the decision was made just a day after successfully implementing the upgrade on the Holesky testnet without any issues. Parithosh Jayanthi, a DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, expressed enthusiasm, saying, “It’s great to see years worth of effort finally being scheduled for Ethereum mainnet.”
The Dencun upgrade will activate when the blockchain reaches slot 8626176, precisely at 13:55 UTC on March 13. However, this date is subject to confirmation via GitHub by the developers. The upgrade introduces “proto-danksharding,” a new transaction class. Aimed at reducing transaction costs for rollups by introducing data “blobs” for storing data.
Moreover, Dencun is predicted to make data cheaper on Ethereum. It could make projects like Celestia, Avail, and EigenDA more appealing. Testing on three different test networks, including the latest one called Holesky, is being done to make sure that moving to the main Ethereum network goes smoothly.
Ethereum data availability
Ethereum is getting busier with new “layer 2” networks, which are separate blockchains built on top of the main Ethereum network. These networks focus on making transactions faster and cheaper. To handle the increasing transaction details, Ethereum’s top developers have suggested plans like EIP-4844 or “proto-danksharding.”
Proto-danksharding is the initial step towards implementing “danksharding.” It is a technical feature crucial for scaling the Ethereum blockchain. Despite the delay from the developers’ original plan, which aimed for the end of 2023, the scheduled date for Dencun marks a significant milestone.
Moving forward, developers are already looking to the next step after Dencun, planning the Prague/Electra hard fork. In addition, the upgrade might introduce “Verkle Trees,” which are new data structures. Assisting nodes in efficiently storing large amounts of data while still being able to verify blocks. Ethereum price jumps 1.51% in anticipation of the upcoming Dencun upgrade scheduled for March 31. It stands at $2,460.06 as of this writing.
