
Ethereum’s core developers met on Thursday to plan modifications to the blockchain’s consensus layer in preparation for the upcoming upgrade, Cancun-Deneb.
This upgrade, expected later this year, aims to make Ethereum cheaper for users by implementing new changes across the platform’s two mainnet layers: the execution layer and the consensus layer.
The Cancun-Deneb upgrade will introduce Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844, also known as “proto-danksharding.”
This proposal seeks to augment Ethereum’s scalability beyond the current capabilities of Layer 2 solutions. EIP-4844 aims to bring temporary storage and retrieval of off-chain data by Ethereum nodes to address the data and storage demands of blockchain applications.
If successfully activated, EIP-4844 is expected to lower the cost of transactions on Layer 2 rollup solutions such as Optimism and Arbitrum, compared to their current rates.
Developers have already tested EIP-4844 on four other devnets, and a fifth multi-client devnet is set to launch in the following week.
The Cancun-Deneb upgrade will also involve changes to the execution layer, which handles smart contract execution.
To provide clarity, the upgrade for the execution layer will be called Cancun, while the consensus layer upgrade will be named Deneb, thus giving the combined upgrade its name, Cancun-Deneb.
Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade, which introduced validator withdrawals, was activated earlier this month, and developers are now making progress on the next upgrade, Cancun-Deneb.
With EIP-4844, Ethereum’s core developers hope to improve the platform’s scalability, making it more cost-effective for users and addressing the data and storage demands of blockchain applications.