The Dencun upgrade, the biggest Ethereum update ever is now live on the Ethereum mainnet

The Dencun upgrade, the biggest Ethereum update, has been enabled on the Ethereum mainnet. The upgrade uses EIP-4844, also known as Proto-Danksharding, to build a dedicated data channel on Ethereum for layer-2 data, drastically lowering transaction costs on rollups.

In addition, Dencun also releases nine Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), tying it for the most upgrades released in a single hard fork.

Following Dencun, the Ethereum foundation team stated that most rollups and their users will notice advantages within hours to days, since the availability of data blobs on Ethereum should reduce transaction costs by 5-10x.

This tangible advantage to customers is fueling excitement for the update, as it puts us closer to a future in which fees are an afterthought rather than a dealbreaker.

Aki Balogh, co-founder and CEO of DLC.Link, compares EIP-4844 to the “NoSQL movement” of the 2010s, which loosened limits on structured SQL data via breakthroughs such as MongoDB.

Furthermore, it gives developers enormous blobs of ephemeral data that allows them to innovate without raising network demand. Philippe Schommers, director of infrastructure at Gnosis, which installed Dencun on Monday, points out that Ethereum’s new data storage route does not forfeit decentralization.

Suku’s Chief Technology Officer, Lucas Henning, describes the change as “less glamorous” but part of Ethereum’s “big ambition.”

Henning thinks Dencun is one piece of the jigsaw that will help Ethereum establish a bigger, completely decentralized network.