Good News, Ethereum Will Get A Dencun Upgrade!

Ethereum, the second largest crypto asset after Bitcoin, will get an upgrade. (Photo; Doc. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Ethereum, the world's second-largest blockchain platform, will soon get an upgrade to a network called Dencun. This upgrade aims to increase Ethereum's scalability by utilizing proto-danksharding technology.

For information, proto-danksharding is a process that allows large data to be stored in Ethereum beacon nodes without having to be executed by the virtual Ethereum (EVM) engine. This data can be used by layer 2 solutions, such as rollups, which is a method to increase Ethereum transaction capacity by moving most of the computing and storage to the layer above the blockchain.

With proto-danksharding, rollups can submit their data at a lower cost and reduce loads on the Ethereum network. This data can also be automatically deleted after a certain period of time, so it doesn't burden the network's storage space.

The Dencun upgrade has been successfully launched on all Ethereum testnets on February 27, 2024. The testnets are a trial network used to test new features before being implemented on the mainnet, which is the main network used by real users.

According to a blog post from the Ethereum Foundation, the Dencun upgrade will be activated on the Ethereum mainnet on March 13, 2024 at 8:55 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) time. Stakers, namely users who deposit 32 ether (ETH) to run the beacon node and validate the block, are asked to update their software to match the upgrade.

The Dencun upgrade is based on the 4844 Ethereum (EIP) improvement proposal, introduced by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, in 2023. The EIP-4844 proposes a new transaction format called sphard blob transactions, which can carry large data in blobs.

The name Dencun comes from a combination of the name Deneb star and the name of the city of Cancun, which is the location of the Ethereum developer's conference, Devcon 3, in 2023. This upgrade is part of Ethereum's long-term plan to switch from the proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof of stake (PoS), which is more energy efficient and secure.

The Dencun upgrade is expected to take Ethereum to a higher level in terms of scalebility, efficiency, and user-friendly. Grayscale's crypto asset manager, in its blog post, called this upgrade one of the factors driving the maturity of Ethereum as a blockchain platform.

Despite the increasing competition with competitors, Ethereum faces a number of winds from behind, including network effects and billions of network revenues, Dencun upgrades, an expanding Layer 2 ecosystem, and increasing cases of use for its security budget, Grayscale said. "In addition, the potential for the existence of Ethereum ETF spots could bring ETH as a further asset to the awareness of both institutions and the general public."