Ethereum developers are gearing up for the launch of Cancun-Deneb, the blockchain network's next upgrade that focuses on transaction scalability.
Cancun-Deneb includes EIP-4844, the Ethereum improvement proposal that will introduce a new mechanism called Proto-danksharding that seeks to improve the scalability of the blockchain network.
This new scalability mechanism introduces a new transaction format to the Ethereum network, known as a “blob-bearing transaction.” As explained by the network developers, this new type of transaction is presented as a normal transaction on the network. However, it contains extra data called fixed-size blobs that are much cheaper than call data, so they do not compete with the gas usage of Ethereum transactions, making the chain more scalable.
The Ethereum development team discussed the implementation of Cancun-Deneb at their most recent ACDC meetup, led by blockchain researcher Danny Ryan.
This update and EIP-4844 are expected to arrive later this year.
EIP-4844, the main focus of the Cancun-Deneb upgrade
Christine Kim, a research associate at Galaxy Digital, highlighted on her Twitter account that the Ethereum development team has been working tirelessly to advance the construction of the new network.
Kim also announced the creation of a new development network, or devnet, that will allow the team to test the implementation of EIP-4844 as early as next week.
In addition to the EIP-4844 improvement proposal, Ethereum developers are also considering including two other improvement proposals, EIP-4788 and EIP-3175, in the Cancun-Deneb upgrade.
Ethereum moves towards sharding
The Shanghai upgrade was successfully deployed on the mainnet on April 12, triggering ether withdrawals for network validators. Shanghai was one of the most anticipated upgrades by both Ethereum node validators and the crypto community.
The main focus for developers now is Cancun-Deneb, the name given to Ethereum’s upcoming execution layer and consensus layer upgrade.
Once Cancun-Deneb is implemented, developers will activate proto-danksharding, bringing Ethereum closer to sharding and, with it, to an unprecedented level of scalability on the network.
Proto-danksharding will make a larger amount of changes to the blockchain compared to danksharding (EIP-4488), so fewer changes will be required to upgrade to full sharding in the future.
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