Ethereum (ETH) announced that it will make a significant update to its network. The long-awaited Dencun update was confirmed during the bi-weekly consensus layer coordination meeting with the platform's key developers and will go live on March 13.
The Dencun update is primarily known for its proto-danksharding feature, which aims to reduce transaction costs on auxiliary “layer-2” networks built on top of Ethereum by providing a private space for data storage. This feature will enable a new type of transaction class called “proto-danksharding” and introduce a new category for storing data: data “blobs”.
The decision to perform the update was conveyed during consensus layer call 127 to all major developers. The announcement comes just a day after the update was successfully rolled out to the Holesky testnet, the third of the three testnets, without any issues.
The exact moment when the Dencun update on the main Ethereum network, also known as the “Hardfork”, will occur will occur when the blockchain reaches slot 8626176, that is, at 16:55 on March 13. This date needs to be approved by the developers and confirmed on the open source software platform GitHub.
The Dencun update was initially targeted for late 2023, but due to technical delays the update was postponed to early 2024
Developers are already planning the next hardfork, Prague/Electra, which could potentially include “Verkle Trees,” a new type of data structure that would help nodes store large amounts of data without losing the ability to verify blocks.
*This is not investment advice.
