Ethereum’s ‘Dencun’ upgrade test is now scheduled for January 17

Ethereum's upcoming update “Cancun-Deneb” (also known as “Dencun”) will begin testing on January 17, according to a note published on the official Ethereum Github repository. The update will first be applied to the Goerli testnet, then added to Sepolia on January 30 and Holeski on February 7. The Ethereum team has not yet announced when Denkun will be implemented on the mainnet.

The new update includes several tools intended to reduce fees, allow new features of bridges and pools, and use self-destruct functions on smart contracts.

According to the developer documentation, Dankun is Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844, also known as “proto-danksharding”. This allows Layer-2 packet networks such as Arbitrum, Base, Polygon zkEVM, and others to temporarily store specific transaction data, using a new format called “blobs”. Blobs can be deleted after 18 days, but the current practice is to include the information in the CALLDATA field and keep it on the blockchain forever. Ethereum developers believe that proto-dunksharding will significantly reduce transaction fees at Layer-2s.

Related: Ethereum Proto-Dunksharding to Make Bundles 10x Cheaper – Consensys

The update also contains several other proposals, including EIP-1153, which introduces a “temporary storage” system to further reduce fees, and EIP-4788, which increases transparency by storing the root of each beacon chain block in a smart contract. Applications can be requested. Developers expect the information provided by EIP-4788 to be used in new features for bridges and containers.

In addition, Dencun contains EIP-6780, a proposal to limit the use of the suicide keyword. If included in a contract prior to deployment, self-destruction can now be used to destroy the smart contract code and send all funds to the deploying account. After Denkun, this keyword will not execute the code unless it is called in the same transaction where it is deployed. However, the keyword still transfers all funds to the broker, even if it is called for in future transactions.

Ethereum updates are usually tested for a few months before being deployed to the network. An earlier deployment named “Shapella” began testing on February 7. It was launched to the mainnet on April 12th.