Blobs unleashed: Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade activates on mainnet

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Quick Take

Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade was activated on the Ethereum mainnet.
It has introduced “blobs” to reduce Layer 2 transaction costs.

Ethereum ETH -1.39% core developers implemented the Dencun upgrade on the mainnet, introducing “blobs," which are expected to make Layer 2 transactions significantly cheaper.

Including the EIP-4844, the upgrade was activated on the network at epoch 269568, at around 10 am ET. The epoch is yet to be finalized.

Ethereum Layer 2 rollups will now be to use blobs instead of the “calldata” method for posting transactions — offering a direct path to fee reduction and passing these savings to end users.

Blobs are intended to enhance Ethereum by improving data availability while not affecting the current infrastructure, thereby reducing transaction costs on Layer 2s such as Base, Optimism, Arbitrum One, zkSync, Starknet, and several others. A separate fee market for blobs will attempt to maintains low cost, even in times of high network congestion.

While some Layer 2 chains plan to integrate blobs immediately, others may take a while to do so.

Other Dencun improvements

Besides EIP-4844, there are eight other code updates added to Ethereum with Dencun.

This includes EIP-4788, which introduces what’s known as an “enshrined oracle,” improving communication between Ethereum’s two base layers: the execution layer and the consensus layer.

Another improvement brought by Dencun is EIP-1153, focused on “transient storage,” a feature that’s needed for Uniswap version 4 to launch this year.

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About Author

Vishal Chawla is The Block’s crypto ecosystems editor and has spent over six years covering tech protocols, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Vishal likes to delve deep into blockchain intricacies to ensure readers are well-informed about the continuously evolving crypto landscape. He is also a staunch advocate for rigorous security practices in the space. Before joining The Block, Vishal held positions at IDG ComputerWorld, CIO, and Crypto Briefing. He can be reached on Twitter at @vishal4c and via email at [email protected]