Ethereum developers have officially set March 13 as the target date for the highly anticipated Dencun upgrade, marking the blockchain’s most significant changes since April 2023. The upgrade introduces “proto-danksharding,” aimed at reducing transaction costs on layer-2 networks by allocating dedicated storage space. This decision was made during the all core developers consensus layer call 127, following successful integration into the Holesky testnet without issues. Parithosh Jayanthi from the Ethereum Foundation expressed satisfaction at the culmination of years of effort. The upgrade, activated upon reaching slot 8626176 at 13:55 UTC, introduces “proto-danksharding,” a new transaction class, and data “blobs” to lower transaction costs for rollups. Additionally, it aims to make data on Ethereum more cost-effective, benefiting projects like Celestia, Avail, and EigenDA. Despite initial plans for a 2023 release, technical hurdles postponed Dencun to early 2024. Nevertheless, thorough testing ensures a smooth transition to mainnet.

Twitter