The Ethereum Foundation sets the date of the Denkun update.
Dencun, the long-awaited latest update to the Ethereum network, will go live in the Ethereum mainnet on March 13. The upgrade introduces proto-danksharding, reduces transaction costs, and improves the overall performance of the network.
The launch date was decided on a call with developers last Thursday, a day after the update was pushed to the Holesky testnet. The upgrade is part of “The Surge” era, the aim of which is to see the network handle more than 100,000 transactions per second on a roll.
By popular demand, an updated roadmap for 2023! pic.twitter.com/oxo58A2KuG
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 30, 2023
After the current era ends, the Ethereum team will shift its efforts to decentralization. These come from the dangers of Ethereum's consensus-proofing mechanism that was implemented years ago.
Low fees for more balance
Ethereum Update Proposal 4844 (EIP-4844) is one of the most anticipated features included in the Denkun update. The proposal introduces “Shard Blob transactions”, also known as proto-dansharding, so that the network can accept transactions capable of holding large amounts of data.
Ethereum makes it easy for blockchains to connect to the ecosystem by allowing persistent data stores to be stored in the network. As “the only trustless scaling solution for Ethereum,” it's important to ensure bundles offer low fees, especially since full data sharing isn't coming anytime soon.
High gas prices have been a major concern for the Ethereum community, as these prevent regular users from connecting to Layer1. While aggregators like Arbitrum help, transaction fees still remain higher than other networks, especially when demand is high.
EIP-4844 is now expected to reduce “order-by-order” payments, all without sacrificing decentralization. The team believes that this will enable the network to remain competitive and scale up, ensuring that rollups remain viable mass vehicles.
Ethereum staking has reached a major milestone
News of the upcoming update wasn't the only thing that got the Ethereum community excited. The data shows that at the time of writing, more than 25% of the ETH supply was traded, with 31% sold through Lido and 14.4% through Coinbase.
With over 943k validators helping secure the network and the equivalent of $73.2, this marks a major milestone for Ethereum. The numbers show positive sentiment among investors and speculators who have strong faith in Ethereum's future.
This sentiment is reflected in the performance of ETH in the past weeks, because the token has passed a 5.5% gain in the last week and 9.4% in the last two. While these two are similar to BTC's gains over the same period, Ethereum managed to maintain a 7% gain over the past month, compared to BTC's 3% loss.
Making Ethereum accessible to developers
Despite being one of the most popular networks for developers in the blockchain space, Ethereum hasn't necessarily been the most accessible. This is not a case of developers being prevented from contributing to the ecosystem, but due to the complexity of the development process.
The Ethereum Foundation has launched the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) program in 2021. The program is designed to help developers get on board and “dip into the protocol” while learning by doing. Now, the foundation has gone a step further by setting up the EPF Study Group (EPFsg), a precursor to the EPF programme.
The EPFsg takes place over 10 weeks and helps participants understand topics such as protocol design, experimental methods and research and roadmaps such as Verkle trees. The program is open and only requires a part-time commitment starting February 19 this year.
The price of ETH is also ringing higher. Despite the bumps in the road, 2024 looks good for Ethereum, both in terms of development and value.
