4844 Data Challenge: Insights and Winners

In March 2024, the Ethereum network underwent a significant upgrade by implementing EIP-4844, an essential part of the Dencun hard fork, which aimed to strengthen Ethereum’s role as a data availability layer. This upgrade dramatically improved the scalability of layer 2 solutions by introducing data “blobs”, increasing data availability by approximately 100x. As with any major upgrade, it is important to assess the impact, understand the implications, and improve our approach moving forward.

To that end, we launched a dedicated data collection round inviting researchers and developers to explore the empirical impact of EIP-4844. The response was overwhelming, with submissions exploring everything from consensus layer security to rollup economics. Today, we are excited to announce the winners of this round, who have provided valuable insights into how this important upgrade is reshaping the Ethereum ecosystem.

gold 🥇

Park Sung-wan – Decipher_SNU: Empirical Impact Assessment of EIP-4844
Seongwan’s research provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of the impact of EIP-4844 on consensus security, Ethereum usage, and rollup transaction dynamics. His research highlights both the improvements and challenges introduced by this upgrade, providing valuable data to guide future improvements.

silver 🥈

Coffee cup: Impact of EIP-4844 on Rollup Economics
Kofi’s ongoing work on the open-source Dune dataset extends it to include Blob fee data, providing a detailed view of rollup costs and revenues post EIP-4844. His dashboard simplifies rollup economic analysis, making it accessible to the broader community.

Isaac Samuel : EIP-4844: Strengthening Ethereum’s Scalable Future with Blob Transactions
Isaac’s project delves deep into the metrics and significance of blob transactions. His mega-dashboard on Flipside Crypto tracks on-chain metrics and provides detailed analysis through articles to help the community understand the broader implications of EIP-4844.

Victoria Tran – BlockNative: Blob Adoption and Utilization – Insights from the First 85 Days
Blocknative’s submission provides insight into the early adoption and utilization of Blobs through their innovative Blob Archive API. This tool, along with the Mempool Data Archive, provides unparalleled insight into Ethereum’s data availability landscape post-EIP-4844.

Comforting: 4844 Insights
Yijing’s analysis focuses on block propagation times, layer 2 publishing patterns, and network stability following the Dencun hard fork. Submitted in a timely manner despite the tight deadline, her analysis provides essential insights into how EIP-4844 is reshaping Ethereum’s data infrastructure.

bronze 🥉

Evan Kim – Premeb: Blob Market Censorship, Waiting Times and Pre-Checks
Evan’s research explores the new blob market introduced by EIP-4844, and examines its similarities to EIP-1559 gas prices and potential challenges such as transaction delays and censorship. His research proposes innovative solutions such as “pre-conf bids” to improve the efficiency and reliability of blob markets.

Guillaume Michel – Probe Lab: Deep Dive into Dencun Hardfork’s P2P Layer
Guillaume’s blog post analyzes the impact of the Dencun hard fork on Ethereum’s P2P networking layer, focusing on the public DHT and gossipsub protocol in discv5. His research provides important insights into network performance and areas for improvement.

Leonardo Batista Gomezhttps://x.com/miga_laps): Ethereum’s First 3 Months of Blob Study
Leonardo’s in-depth study covers the behavior of blob data during the first 12 weeks after the Dencun hard fork. His analysis includes the frequency and distribution of blobs per slot, as well as challenges and potential for future scalability.

Leonardo Batista Gomezhttps://x.com/miga_laps): Ethereum Hardware Resource Analysis Update
In his second submission, Leonardo updates his previous research on hardware resource consumption of Ethereum clients, comparing performance before and after the introduction of blobs. His findings are important for understanding the infrastructure demands of the network’s latest upgrade.

Evan Kim – Premeb: Slot inclusion rate and blob market combination theory
Evan’s last submission explores the combinatorics of blob markets, analyzing slot inclusion rates, competition, and potential censorship. His work lays the groundwork for optimizing blob markets and ensuring fair and efficient transaction inclusion.

Future Prospects

The insights gained from this round of data collection are invaluable as Ethereum continues to evolve. EIP-4844 represents a significant step forward in Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, and the work of these researchers will help ensure that the network remains secure, efficient, and scalable. As the blob market continues to grow, it is approaching a point of congestion, which will undoubtedly provide even more interesting insights into how Ethereum’s infrastructure handles this increased demand. We appreciate the contributions of all participants and look forward to further fostering collaboration and innovation within the Ethereum community.

As we continue to explore the frontiers of Ethereum development, stay tuned for more updates and news on future rounds.