Ethereum leans toward a roll-forward as Denkun’s hard fork hovers.

Layer-2 protocols are designed so that the Ethereum blockchain can benefit from significantly reduced encryption costs when the Denkun hard fork hits the mainnet. Still, end users may not get the full benefit right away.

David Silverman, Polygon Labs VP of Product, told Cointelegraph that Ethereum's latest hard fork, which contains multiple enhancement proposals (EIPS), will take a few weeks to fully implement the package protocols.

“In a month and a half or two months, every L2 blob space that wants to use it as a bundle will be transferred to another location, and then users will see the full benefit.”

Related: Ethereum devs expect 10x lower package costs when Denkun update hits testnets

The Denkun hard fork includes a total of nine different EIPs. The update's name is a combination of the Cancun update on Ethereum's execution layer and the Deneb update on the consensus layer.

What does EIP-4844 do?

Silverman explains that the main focus of the hard fork is EIP-4844, which will change how Ethereum blockchains store data on the mainnet. They process a number of Layer-2 bundle transactions off-chain and provide summary proof of these transactions to the Ethereum blockchain.

Currently, there is only one type of storage in Ethereum – call it data storage at the execution layer. It's persistent, meaning if I post something, whether it's a transaction data image for an NFT or a bundle, all Ethereum nodes have to store that state forever,” Sillman explains.

EIP-4844 introduces a blob space that creates a new way to package cheap data into blocks. Using call data for storage was expensive because all Ethereum nodes had to host data that would live indefinitely on the chain.

Related: Make Ethereum Cheap Again: ‘Blobs' With Dencun Update Launches March 13

Proto-danksharding, named by the researchers who proposed the EIP-4844, allows for sending and attaching packets of data in blocks. The data is not accessible to the Ethereum Virtual Machine and will be deleted automatically after a certain period of time, which will be 18 days. Silverman explains:

“The idea with these blobs in EIP-4844 is to create a new storage unit that I can't really do. I can't touch them in Ethereum EVM, but Ethereum, the protocol, guarantees the storage for a certain period of time.

Silverman added that because the dots are stored temporarily, they are cheaper to package and allow for the same safety guarantees.

The benefits of the package will not be immediate.

Proto-danksharding has been a hot topic in the Ethereum community, considering its potential impact on the value of bulk data storage in the future. Various Layer-2 developers have suggested that it can reduce packaging costs by 10 to 50 times, but Silverman says the real impact will only be seen once Denkun enters the mainstream.

Polygon Labs' vice president of product notes that the impact won't be immediate. Denkun's hard fork is scheduled for March 13, after which packages will have to make their own updates before using the new repository.

“Each pack has to follow their own management to change their contracts, from pointing to information calls to pointing to the new blob location.”

Silverman said Polygon is working hard to accelerate its own implementation of EIP-4844. At the same time, discussions with colleagues from Optimism, zkSync and Arbitrum indicate that L2s are interested in using the hard fork as soon as possible.

Ethereum leans towards roll-forward.

Denkun also represents the realization of Ethereum's shift to a layer-2-centric scaling approach. Silverman says Ethereum is looking to “slow down and simplify” its core components, leaving innovation and user-level focus to L2s.

“This is an element of Ethereum's road map, as opposed to being responsible for scaling from the base chain, where coils are really the future. We're going to make changes to make them cheaper and more attractive to users and to be Ethereum's standard bearer,” Silverman said.

Major players have started coordinating among themselves with the formation of Roll Call where these layer 2s meet, discuss and propose improvements.

“These changes will only be on L2. EVM changes that won't come to main Ethereum, things like new tokenization, new presets, new opcodes,” Sillman added.

Related: Key Things to See on the Ethereum Network Roadmap

Denkun may not have an immediate impact on packaging costs, but Silverman has some fanfare to look forward to when the hard fork is complete. Silverman said:

“EthStaker always does a great stream. You'll see some interesting experiments at launch. Developers at ETH Denver say they are working on ETH blob ordinals to block blob space.

As the phased implementation of EIP-4844 occurs, the ecosystem will begin to see the true impact of proto-danksharding. Silverman believes that as more L2s join the blob space, they will gradually reduce the impact of the price drop.

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