Ethereum’s core developers have successfully implemented the highly important Dencun upgrade, marking a significant milestone in the network’s development. This upgrade, which went into effect at 10 a.m. ET, introduced EIP4844, also known as blobs, signaling a new era of reduced fees on the network.
The eagerly anticipated Dencun upgrade is expected to significantly decrease transaction fees on Layer 2 projects within Ethereum, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base. This will enable them to compete with low-fee platforms like the Solana network, which has become a popular alternative for users seeking to avoid Ethereum’s high transaction costs.
Unlike the previous “call data” system, blobs utilize a unique mechanism that ensures data accessibility without disrupting the network’s existing infrastructure, ultimately leading to lower transaction fees. While this feature is currently available on some Layer 2 platforms, it will take time for the entire network to fully integrate it.
Marius Van Der Wijden, a core developer for Ethereum, commented on the upgrade, stating, “I believe that this upgrade will have the most significant impact on users compared to all previous Ethereum upgrades. Dencun is a much more substantial update than Shanghai.”
The Shanghai upgrade, implemented last year, allowed users to access their staked Ethereum during the network’s Merge. It was one of several updates following Ethereum’s transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).
Shortly after the Dencun upgrade, the Layer 2 network Blast experienced an outage, which it attributed to the Ethereum update. The outage began around 10:05 a.m. ET and lasted for over two hours. Blast later issued an update stating that the issue had been resolved and that the network had updated its node repository to address the problem. It also advised developers running their own nodes to perform a docker compose pull to obtain the latest version.
Surprisingly, Ethereum’s price barely reacted to the Dencun upgrade, remaining relatively stable after the update. ETH continues to strive, albeit unsuccessfully for now, to surpass the $4,000 mark and is currently trading at $3,971.
Tags: Ethereum
