Key Points
- Ethereum's Dencun upgrade has been implemented on the mainnet, introducing "blobs" to lower Layer 2 transaction costs.
- The upgrade also includes other improvements such as an "enshrined oracle" and "transient storage".
The Dencun upgrade has been activated on the mainnet of Ethereum.
This upgrade introduces a feature known as "blobs", which are expected to make transactions on Layer 2 significantly cheaper.
Details on the Dencun Upgrade
The upgrade was activated on the network at epoch 269568, around 10 am ET.
Layer 2 rollups on Ethereum can now use these blobs instead of the previous "calldata" method for posting transactions.
This change offers a direct path to fee reduction, passing these savings to end users.
Blobs are designed to improve Ethereum by enhancing data availability, without affecting the current infrastructure.
This in turn reduces transaction costs on Layer 2s such as Base, Optimism, Arbitrum One, zkSync, Starknet, and several others.
A separate fee market for blobs will aim to keep transaction costs for Layer 2s low, even during times of high network congestion.
Additional Improvements
While some Layer 2 chains plan to integrate blobs immediately, others may take some time.
In addition to EIP-4844, Dencun includes eight other code updates for Ethereum.
One of these is EIP-4788, which introduces an "enshrined oracle" to improve communication between Ethereum's two base layers: the execution layer and the consensus layer.
Another notable improvement is EIP-1153, which focuses on "transient storage", a feature required for the launch of Uniswap version 4 this year.
