Ethereum (ETH) is about to receive its next major network update. The long-awaited “Dencun” update has now been successfully activated on Ethereum’s third and final test network. The countdown is now running until the relay handover Mainnet.
Ethereum update activated on Holesky
Yesterday at 12:34 Dutch time, Dencun was activated on the so-called Holesky testnet. Shortly afterwards the update was successful completed.
Launched last September, Holesky is considered the most thorough testing environment for Ethereum updates. Holesky contains more validators than Ethereum mainnet.
As mentioned, Holesky was the final obstacle the update had to overcome. Dencun was also previously launched on the other two test networks Goerli and Sepolia.
Test networks mimic a main blockchain and give developers the opportunity to fix any bugs before the mainnet. Now that the big update has been simulated on all test networks, all that remains is the official launch.
The Dencun hard fork mainly focuses on improving the scalability of Ethereum. Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844, better known as “Proto-Dank-Hardening”, plays an important role in this.
The goal of Proto-Danksharding is to reduce transaction costs for rollups and make data availability cheaper. Rollups process transactions outside of the layer-1 blockchain, in this case Ethereum, implemented and bundled into a single “condensed” version.
So-called “blobs” are introduced for this purpose. These are data packets linked to Ethereum’s existing transaction blocks and provide specific storage space for Layer 2 rollups.
When will Dencun go live on Ethereum mainnet?
Ethereum developers have not yet set an official date for its mainnet launch. Lead developer Tim Beiko reported last week that the exact date will most likely be set tomorrow later this year Execution of all Ethereum core developers (ACDE) Call.
We can expect the hard fork to release sometime later this month or next. According to Christine Kim, vice president of research at crypto investment fund Galaxy Digital, there is an 80 percent chance that Dencun will be operational by the end of March. She estimates a 40 percent chance of starting in February.
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