Ethereum developers are accelerating testing for Dencun, a highly anticipated network upgrade set for 2024. It will introduce data storage capabilities and scale the blockchain through a process called “proto-danksharding.”
The new functionality promises to reduce fees for layer 2 rollups—solutions built on top of Ethereum to improve transaction speeds and costs—and expand data capacity on the blockchain by enabling the storage of large “blobs” of data.
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Ethereum targeting testnets first
In a recent biweekly call, Ethereum developers discussed targeting January 17th for a test run of Dencun on Goerli, one of the network’s test networks used to trial changes in a low-risk environment.
“Obviously if we find a major issue or something crazy before then, we can always cancel,” said Tim Beiko, protocol support lead at the Ethereum Foundation. “This would mean, ideally, we’re putting out the blog post for the fork sometime during the week of January 8th, so people have at least a week to update.”
While originally slated for late 2023, complex engineering hurdles led developers to push back Dencun’s main network deployment to 2024. Test network launches represent major milestones on the road to a mainnet release.
In addition to the January 17th Goerli test, developers mapped out an aggressive Dencun testing timeline, with subsequent test runs planned on two other test networks, Sepolia and Holesky.
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If testing progresses smoothly, they envision rolling out Dencun on the Ethereum mainnet around late February 2024. However, issues uncovered during testing could delay this schedule.
Dencun will be the first major upgrade following Shapella, which allowed the withdrawal of staked ether funds to secure the newly proof-of-stake Ethereum network.
While the development timeline remains fluid, the active testing regime underscores developers’ commitments to releasing functional upgrades that securely advance Ethereum’s capabilities.