Ethereum (ETH) network’s highly anticipated final major update, Dencun, has begun its countdown. The update, which is expected to significantly reduce transaction fees and increase scalability once it is deployed on the mainnet, recently went live on the Sepolia testnet, leaving only one testnet before the expected “proto-danksharding” feature can be fully utilized.
Dencun Update Expected to Arrive on the Final Testnet Holesky on February 7
The deployment of the Dencun update on Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet started today at 01:51 local time and was completed shortly thereafter. Parithosh Jayanthi, a DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, indicated in a post that the update was successfully implemented on the testnet, stating “blobs are now flowing on Sepolia.” The developer emphasized the importance of a smooth process by saying, “Incident-free testnet forks are the best.”
Ethereum core developers had applied the update to the Goerli testnet at the beginning of this month. The update is scheduled to be launched on the third and final testnet, Holesky, on February 7. After the third successful testnet deployment, the Ethereum team will need to set a date for the implementation of the Dencun update on the mainnet.
What You Need to Know About the Dencun Update
The Dencun update will introduce a new, compressed data storage mechanism called “blob” to the Ethereum network, aiming to reduce transaction fees and increase scalability through the proto-danksharding feature.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, explained in a community statement that “A transaction carrying a blob is like a normal transaction, but it also carries an extra piece of data called a blob” and noted that “Blobs are quite large (about 125 kB) and can be much cheaper than similar amounts of call data.”
As is known, Ethereum’s last major update, the Shapella update, was implemented on the mainnet in March 2023, enabling users and validators to withdraw their staked ETH on the network.
