The Ethereum Foundation released a Dencun mainnet upgrade announcement. Dencun is expected to be activated on the Ethereum mainnet at 21:55 on March 13, 2024 Beijing time, with a block height of 269568. Node operators and stakers must upgrade their software to the versions listed in the announcement. This upgrade introduces a temporary data blob with EIP-4844, also known as protodanksharding, which will help reduce L2 transaction fees.

According to a new report from asset management company Grayscale Investments, the recent price performance of Ethereum reflects the market's expectation for the upcoming Dencun upgrade next month. In addition to the potential for the upcoming Dencun upgrade and the approval of a spot Ethereum ETF, the Grayscale report points out "net tightening supply" and "network revenue" as other optimistic reasons. The report states that Ethereum can become more competitive to attract more smart contract business. Analysts wrote, "If Ethereum can become more competitive in throughput and cost, it can position itself for smart contract applications that require high-level security and anti-censorship, such as stablecoins or tokenized financial assets."

According to official sources, the Ethereum client Nethermindv has announced the official launch of client v1.25.4, aimed at preparing for the upgrade of Dencun on the Ethereum mainnet and Gnosis chain. It is reported that this version is a mandatory upgrade for all Ethereum and Gnosis node operators. According to previous reports, the Dencun upgrade on the Gnosis chain will take place on March 11th, and the Dencun upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet will take place on March 13th.

The Dencun upgrade has been successfully deployed on the third of three test networks, with a target date of March 13 set for its implementation on the main Ethereum network. The upgrade aims to reduce costs for layer-2 transactions and data availability on Ethereum, primarily through its "proto-danksharding" feature. This marks the biggest changes to the blockchain since April 2023, and developers have run three tests to ensure a smooth transition to mainnet. The upgrade was originally planned for the end of 2023 but was pushed to early 2024 due to technical delays.

EthHub co-founder sassal.eth announced on X platform that the Ethereum Dencun upgrade has been launched on the Holesky test network. The next step is the main Ethereum network, and the date may be announced within the next 24 hours.

Ethereum developers plan to determine the main network launch date of Dencun on next Thursday (February 8th), which will introduce several EIPs, including proto-dank sharding that is expected to reduce Layer2 transaction costs. In addition, Christine Kim, the Vice President of Research at Galaxy Digital, stated that there is an 80% chance that the Dencun main network will be activated by the end of March, and there is also a possibility that it will go live at the end of February, but she stated that this possibility is small, at around 40%.

Developers of Ethereum have announced the dates for implementing the Dencun upgrade on two key test networks, which are the final steps before going live on the main network. Dencun is a major upgrade that will enable "proto-danksharding," a feature that will decrease transaction costs and enable cheaper data on the blockchain. The protocol changes will be tested on the Sepolia and Holesky test networks on Jan. 30 and Feb. 7, respectively, before being triggered on the main blockchain. The upgrade is expected to hit Ethereum's mainnet by the end of February or early March.

Goerli blobs are here: Dencun went live on Goerli at 6:32 UTC on January 17, 2024. You can now use blobs there! Sepolia and Holesky will upgrade over the next two weeks. Dencun will activate on Sepolia at epoch 132608 (January 30th, 22:51 UTC), and on Holesky at epoch 29696 (February 7th, 11:35 UTC). Client releases in this announcement are suitable for both testnet upgrades.

Dencun will upgrade and land on three testnets in the early 2024, and the Ethereum ecosystem is gradually realizing the cost reduction and transaction acceleration of Layer 2 Rollup. It is reported that EIP-4884 has been activated on the Goerli testnet with Dencun, supporting native danksharding. Nebojsa Urosevic, co-founder of Ethereum development platform Tenderly, said that Dencun may reduce the cost of Rollup transactions by as much as ten times, depending on the blob space requirements. The L2 network will be able to store data more efficiently on L1, and the Blob will be deleted approximately every two weeks, which is enough to make L2 manage, retrieve, and verify data, making blob cheaper than typical transaction call data stored indefinitely.

This is the first article of a series of educational posts regarding all things Dencun, EIP4844 and lower tx fees on Ethereum L2s.Here, we will discuss the Dencun Upgrade at a high level, explaining all the changes it’ll bring to Ethereum, both on its Execution Layer and its Consensus Layer.