The Ethereum Dencun update, combining the Cancun and Deneb upgrades, is set for January 17 for the Goerli testnet. In particular, Dencun will introduce Proto-Danksharding with EIP-4844, aimed at reducing transaction fees on layers 2 by temporarily storing certain data on consensus nodes. We take a look at this new timetable for the Ethereum blockchain.
The date has been set for the next Ethereum update
Dencun, one of the most eagerly awaited updates for the Ethereum blockchain (ETH), is scheduled to land on the Goerli testnet on January 17. Tim Beiko, one of Ethereum’s leading developers, announced the news on X following a meeting between the leading engineers of the first smart contract blockchain:
So, if no major issues arise, we’re looking at the following schedule:
– Goerli: Jan 17, 6:32:00 UTC
– Sepolia: Jan 30, 22:51:12 UTC
– Holesky: Feb 7, 11:34:24 UTC… and then, mainnet pic.twitter.com/JFRt0ZHAi8
– timbeiko.eth ☀️ (@TimBeiko) December 21, 2023
As specified in Tim Beiko’s thread, Dencun will be deployed successively on the Goerli (January 17), Sepolia (January 30) and Holesky (February 7) testnets from next month. This order is determined by factors such as the number of applications present on each testnet, and the number of validators. “And then the mainnet,” added Tim Beiko.
Naturally, this timetable is subject to change in the event of any last-minute unforeseen circumstances, as Tim Beiko reminded us during the call between Ethereum developers:
“Obviously, if we find a major problem or something crazy beforehand, we can always cancel. This means that ideally, we’ll publish the blog post for the fork during the week of January 8, so people have at least a week to get up to speed. “
Initially, the Dencun update was scheduled to be implemented on the various testnets during the autumn of 2023, but the timetable has been changed due to the technical complexity of the various changes being made.
What to expect from Cancun and Deneb, and thus from Proto-Danksharding
Dencun is actually a contraction of Cancun and Deneb, which are in themselves the same updates, but each deployed differently. Cancun is dedicated to upgrading the execution layer, while Deneb includes the update for the consensus layer.
First of all, Dencun will introduce Proto-Danksharding under EIP-4844, a new feature that should considerably reduce transaction costs on layers 2 like Arbitrum, Base, zkSync or Polygon zkEVM. In essence, EIP-4844 consists of storing certain data temporarily on the Ethereum blockchain’s consensus nodes, rather than keeping it indefinitely as is currently the case.
As explained on the Ethereum blockchain’s dedicated EIP site, Proto-Danksharding is a temporary solution pending real Dansharding, which is not expected to see the light of day for several years:
“Transaction fees on L1s have been very high for months, and it’s more urgent to do whatever is necessary to ease the transition to rollups across the entire ecosystem. […] The long-term solution to the inadequacy of rollups has always been data sharing, which would add ~16MB per block of dedicated channel data space that rollups could use. However, implementing and deploying this solution will take a long time. […] This EIP provides an interim solution up to this point by implementing the transaction format that would be used in sharding, but without actually sharding these transactions.”
Excerpt eips.ethereum.org
Finally, Dencun also includes various EIPs, including EIP-1153, which aims to further reduce fees, EIP-4788 for bridges and staking applications, and EIP-6780, which concerns the self-destruct system for smart contracts.
