Ethereum client developers have officially confirmed that the highly anticipated Dencun upgrade will not be deployed through a network hard fork before the conclusion of 2023, according to the latest report.
This announcement follows a series of consistent consensus issues that have emerged during testing on the ten developer networks (devnets) established over the past few months. Notably, none of these test networks have performed satisfactorily, prompting concerns about the feasibility of implementing the upgrade on time.
It was already apparent last month when the Holešky testnet was successfully launched, albeit behind schedule, that the upgrade might not be adequately tested by the end of the year. During a recent All Core Developers call, a more optimistic timeline for the upgrade was proposed, but the prevailing sentiment, as voiced by Prysm developer Potuz, was a resounding “there is no way we are forking mainnet in 2023.”
Divided Ethereum Clients
The division between Ethereum clients is evident, with one camp focusing on the execution layer and the other on the consensus layer. This division is reflected in the name of the Dencun upgrade, with consensus teams adopting city names (e.g., Cancun) while execution client developers choose star names (e.g., Deneb). The divergence in readiness is clear, as execution layer client teams report being well-prepared for upcoming testnets, with one developer, known as Lightclient, stating that “we are in a pretty good place.”
Devnet 10 was recently launched, with plans for execution clients to transition to a larger test on the Goerli testnet. However, Prysm’s Potuz expressed reservations about this plan, citing substantial and ongoing changes in the codebase and suggesting a delay until after Ethereum’s Devconnect developer conference in mid-November in Istanbul.
The Dencun upgrade relies on sophisticated cryptography to ensure the security of the Ethereum scaling improvement known as Proto-Danksharding. The KZG Ceremony, which involves multiple participants and secret computations, produces a “structured reference string” integral to the cryptographic scheme. After months of soliciting contributions, a total of 141,416 participants have contributed to this process, ensuring the security of the upgrade.
Carl Beekhuizen, who coordinated the ceremony for the Ethereum Foundation, invited participants to verify their contributions at ceremony.ethereum.org, where they can input their wallet address and receive a commemorative POAP NFT, marking a significant milestone in Ethereum’s ongoing development.
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