Ethereum Dencun: ‘Ton of use cases’ or ‘not a big deal’?

• The Dencun upgrade reduces transaction fees and boosts performance for L2s.
• Critics questioned its bandwidth impact amid an overly optimistic market sentiment.

In a recent interview with “Unchained,” Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base and Head of Protocols at Coinbase, offered deep insights into Ethereum’s [ETH] latest layer-2 upgrade, known as the Dencun upgrade.

The upgrade went live on the 13th of March. Technically referred to as Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844 or proto-dank sharding, it represents a significant milestone in Ethereum’s ongoing evolution.

Dencun upgrade solving existing problems in Ethereum

Pollak explained the essence of the Dencun upgrade by likening it to a carpool lane for Ethereum. He mentioned that a new resource called “blob space” allows layer 2 networks to post their data efficiently.

This innovative approach facilitates a “fast path” for layer 2 transactions, enabling significant reductions in transaction fees and enhancing the overall performance of the Ethereum blockchain. 

In the interview, Pollak said,

“This was really the first step in what is a long-term strategy for making Ethereum and the layer 2 on top of it to scale to thousands tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of transactions per second.”

The development of EIP 4844 required approximately two years of collaborative effort among Ethereum core developers, marking a significant achievement in Ethereum’s ongoing development.

Exploring key features of Dencun

The Dencun upgrade introduces eight key features aimed at enhancing Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency. One of the most notable features is the EIP 1153 protocol.

EIP 1153 introduced a novel concept known as transient storage. This facilitates more efficient and cheaper data referencing between Layer 1 and Layer 2 transactions.

Furthermore, it offers developers a new tool for enhancing inter-transaction communication without the high costs associated with permanent storage on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). 

Talking about the latest features, Pollak said,

“I think both 1153 and 4788 have really kind of opened up the design space for developers building on layer two and layer one, and we’re going to see a ton of new use cases over the next six months that leverage that new technology”

Critics have a few concerns

Despite the optimism surrounding Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, it has not been without its criticisms. Some industry experts have raised concerns about the increase in net bandwidth.

They argued that the improvements in the current state are not as significant as anticipated compared to the full danksharding version. 

Tarun Chitra, the funder and CEO of Gauntlet, seemed to be cautiously optimistic about the latest upgrade. He mentioned,

“I think it’ll (the Dencun upgrade) definitely be positive I think it’ll push the DA layers to really have to optimize but I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as people claim”

Nevertheless, the prevailing sentiment among analysts is that Ethereum developers must continue to experiment and optimize the combination of roll-ups to be integrated into the mainnet.

This ensures the blockchain’s continued growth and scalability.