With less than a week left until Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade goes live, anticipation is growing for the upcoming changes. Ethereum developer Tim Beiko shared insights on the main component of the hard fork—EIP-4844, also called “proto-danksharding.” EIP-4844 introduces blobs, a temporary data storage mechanism that frees up space in the mainnet. Carrying a payload of 128 kilobytes, data blobs allow rollups to process more transactions at a lower cost.
EIP-4844 creates a new blob gas market to address scalability issues on ethereum by creating space for “blobs” of data, which can be used by L2s for settlement instead of calldata. This is expected to reduce fees for L2s.
These are stored in the beacon chain or consensus layer and not on the execution layer and get automatically deleted in a few months. So, the question arises if the upcoming EIP-4844 will reduce congestion and gas fees on the mainnet. Or, are Ethereum rollups [Layer 2 scaling solutions] the only ones that will benefit from data storage in blobs?
On average, 16 kilobytes of block space are utilized for Layer 2 data for seven days. Given the size of each blob [128kb], the goal is to have three blobs per block, with a maximum allowance of six blobs per block. Layer 2 fees, associated with off-chain scaling solutions, will be notably reduced. This surplus capacity contributes to a reduction in the gas price on L1, which is the main Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum Poised To Break All Records
The Dencun upgrade combines changes to both Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers. Within the 9 protocol changes outlined in EIP-7569, Tim Beiko highlighted the following three:
- EIP-7044: Perpetually Valid Signed Voluntary Exits
- EIP-7045: Increase the Maximum Attestation Inclusion Slot
- EIP-7514: Add the Max Epoch Churn Limit.
Ahead of the Dencun hard fork on March 13, 2024, at 13:55 UTC, ETH appears to be gearing up for a major move. With the current price at $3,870, experts anticipate a potential rise to $4,000 this week. According to data from IntoTheBlock, the leading altcoin might surpass its previous peak. Nearly 93% of ETH addresses are profiting from their positions. Out of the 110.95 million addresses with a positive balance in the token, a staggering 103.1 million addresses are ‘In The Money.’