Ethereum is set to have one of it's big updates early of 2024 called Dencun. The test net is set for January. The full release of it should be expected come end of February. So what is the Dencun upgrade and what does it bring to Ethereum that has so many people excited for it?

Proto-Danksharding

Sharding a blockchain or just any business infrastructure became a hot topic about five years ago. I remember talking about it during a number of business meetings but nothing really came of it. While in theory is sounds great it quickly becomes a complex task of making sure shards are running the same as they should be and then tying all of that data together.

Ethereum is now pushing what is know as Proto-Danksharding and is expecting to drastically increase the amount of data Ethereum can hold and process.

The test net for this is currently slated for Jan. 17th 2024. The main push of this is to reduce fees for layer 2 rollups and scale the blockchain for increased space.

Delays

Like anything when it comes to development delays are extremely common. Sharding was suppose to be released in 2023 as a way to start reducing transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain which has been now twice the reason the bull market stagnated.

First in 2017-2018 when layer two tokens and projects quickly found out just how expensive it was going to be operate their system and dump their blocks on chain. This is when layer two scaling options started to become a thing but even they started to have high fees and it was clear everyone still wanted Ethereum and not a layer two token for the most part.

That happened during the next bull run of 2020-2021 in which DeFi and NFTs where print values of NFTs often costs $50 plus for the transaction to take place. These high fees often price out your every day user and small transactions where fees start costing more than the value of what you are trying to transact.

What Does Dencun Do?

The primary function of the update is set to release Proposal EIP 4844 which is known as Proto-Danksharing. Allowing for layer 2 "rollup" tokens such as Arbitrum, Base, Polygon zkEVEM and others to store data temporarily in a new format known as "blobs"

It also will include EIP 1153 and EIP 4788 of which 1153 will further help reduce fees overall through transient storage and the big one 4788 which is expected to be used for new features on bridges and staking pools.

While the date release for this area currently mid to end Feb. 2024 I honestly don't expect it until April or May 2024 just because that's normally the way testing and development works.

The last update for staking and then being able to actully extract your staked tokens ended up being over two months longer than what was expected.