Due to the series of bugs that have occurred in the devnets where Dencun has been implemented, the developers of the Ethereum Foundation agreed to delay the launch of this new update until next year.
Dencun is the upcoming Ethereum upgrade that is set to improve scalability and reduce gas fees on the network through proto-danksharding.
Initially, the Ethereum Foundation developers planned to release the Dencun upgrade later this year. However, due to the series of consistent bugs that have occurred when deploying Dencun on developer testnets or devnets, the team has agreed that it would be best to postpone its arrival until 2024, in the interest of network security and stability.
The Prysm developer, who goes by the pseudonym Potuz, said that deep changes are still being implemented in the update due to the problems that have occurred in the devnets so far. Potuz noted that Dencun has already been deployed in a dozen developer networks and that none of these tests have gone well.
“There is no way we are going to fork the mainnet in 2023,” Potuz stressed, thus ruling out the possibility of launching Dencun on the Ethereum mainnet this year.
Dencun is the acronym used to refer to Cancun-Deneb, the real name that Ethereum developers have given to their next update.
The name “Cancun” refers to the implementation of the update in the Ethereum execution layer, while “Deneb” is the name given to the implementation of the update in the network’s consensus layer.
The activation of Dencun in Goerli is being considered for November
In Ethereum Developer Call #173, the team discussed the potential activation of the Dencun upgrade on the Goerli testnet by the end of November. However, client developers at the consensus layer and execution layer are at odds over this issue.
While the execution layer development team said they were ready to launch Dencun on Goerli, the consensus layer team aligned with Potuz to postpone the testnet launch. In this regard, Potuz noted that he was “not at all comfortable” with launching Dencun on Goerli just yet.
Separately, Christine Kim, head of research at Galaxy, said that Dencun's activation on the Goerli testnet is likely not going to happen until late November, meaning its deployment on the Ethereum mainnet will likely not happen until early 2024.
What is proto-danksharding?
As defined by the Ethereum Foundation, proto-danksharding is a mechanism designed so that rollups can add cheaper data to blocksThis mechanism allows for the introduction of data blobs that can be sent and attached to blocks on the network, making it possible to send data much more cheaply and therefore reducing transaction gas fees.
In a recent report, analysts at US bank Goldman Sachs highlighted that proto-danksharding represents a major step forward in Ethereum’s journey to becoming a “scalable settlement layer.”
According to CoinDesk, Goldman Sachs emphasized that this mechanism “will serve to establish support for future scalability upgrades, including danksharding, as part of the blockchain’s ‘Surge’ roadmap.”
A long history of delays
Ethereum has a long history of delays when it comes to updates and improvements. However, it should be noted that it is the largest ecosystem of smart contracts and decentralized applications in the crypto world.
“The Merge,” for example, the upgrade that switched Ethereum to the Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol, was implemented last year after a long development period. “Shanghai,” which allowed the unlocking of staked validator ether, arrived on the mainnet in April, a month after its planned launch date.
Likewise, Holesky, one of Ethereum's most recent developments, also faced a brief delay last September.
Holesky is a testnet that is part of the developers' roadmap to maximize Ethereum's scalability and performance. However, due to an issue with the generation specifications at the time of its launch, the testnet was unable to go live on the originally planned date.
The Holesky testnet was successfully deployed in a second attempt two weeks later in early October, marking an important milestone in the development of the network.
Continue reading: Ethereum developers successfully launch new Ethereum Holesky testnet in second attempt
