Ethereum’s much-anticipated Dencun upgrade launched without a hitch Wednesday morning, significantly lowering transaction costs across the Ethereum layer 2 network and opening a new chapter for the blockchain that will significantly expand the capabilities of the blockchain ecosystem.
The Dencun upgrade was successfully implemented just before 10:00 AM EST. It now takes about a month or two for settlement contracts across all Layer 2 networks to incorporate updates. Once that happens, gas fees on the layer 2 network should immediately drop by 75%, said Terence Tsao, an Ethereum layer 2 network developer. decisionBefore said decryption.
Ahead of the hard fork, Ethereum developers hosted a live stream on YouTube where they discussed various proposed Ethereum improvements coming with the launch of Dencun and explained new terminology such as blobs, a new way to configure and transfer. Data on the network.
As the upgrade progressed, ASCII art of blobs appeared on the screen.
Ethereum has undergone several spectacular upgrades in recent years, including one in 2022. absorptionTransformed the network to an energy-efficient proof-of-stake model, expected to be completed by 2023. shanghai upgrade, unlocking tens of billions of dollars worth of ETH staked on the network for withdrawal. But several developers helping build Ethereum believe Dencun is poised to transform the network on a level never seen before.
“We think this upgrade will have the biggest impact on users of all Ethereum upgrades to date,” said Marius Van Der Wijden, Ethereum core developer. decryption. “Dencun is a much bigger update than Shanghai.”
Dencun not only significantly reduces transaction costs in layer 2 networks; It will also redefine the capacity of the Ethereum ecosystem to process high volumes of transactions, significantly lowering the barriers to moving projects, transactions, and data on-chain.
David Silverman, Vice President of Products polygon labPrevious analogy to decryption Dencun will single-handedly scale Ethereum from rural back roads to four-lane highways in terms of the efficiency and ease with which the ecosystem will soon be able to handle unprecedented amounts of on-chain traffic.
After Dencun, gas costs will drop so much that crypto companies and projects will be able to afford them in the future, essentially making these costs a thing of the past, Silverman added.
This unprecedented shift in the Ethereum economy will come at a time when gas fees on the network’s mainnet have recently soared to the point of being nearly unusable. Dencun’s developers haven’t forgotten that fact.
“We are focused on scaling and reducing fees on L2 at a time when Ethereum usage is surging again and gas fees are becoming a noticeable cost for most users,” said Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon. . decryption.
The key to Dencun’s nearly eliminating gas fees is proto-danksharding, a new method for Ethereum data storage introduced by Dencun. Proto-danksharding, leveraging a feature called “blobs,” allows layer 2 data to be temporarily stored on-chain for approximately a month. Until now, data could only be stored forever on Ethereum, an incredibly expensive option that significantly limited data uploaded to the chain.
Developers hope that Dencun will open a new chapter for Ethereum where there are no limitations related to cost, storage or anything else on the amount of data that can exist on the chain. Such a landscape could spark a revolution. project type Tools built across the Ethereum ecosystem.
“We hope Dencun will open up new use cases that were not possible before,” said Ethereum’s Van Der Wijden. “We are not building this for short-term unsustainable profits, we are building this for long-term sustainable growth.”
