Dencun Upgrade Launches on Ethereum Testnets, Receives Mainnet Launch Date of March 13

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February 27, 2024

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Ethereum’s Dencun network upgrade has successfully launched on all testnets as of February 27.

In a blog post, the Ethereum Foundation announced that its highly-anticipated Dencun upgrade would be activated on the Ethereum mainnet on March 13 at 8:55 am EST.

Blobs are coming .oO

Dencun is scheduled for mainnet activation at epoch 29696, occurring March 13 at 13:55 UTC. See the announcement below for client release versions and other useful info about the upgrade 🤖https://t.co/9Wa3Y5M5k4

— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) February 27, 2024

Ethereum Dencun Upgrade Requires Staker Updates

“Two years after its ETHDenver inception, dozens of testing calls and devnets later, protodanksharding is finally going live on mainnet,” the Ethereum Foundation said in its post.

Stakers will be required to update their beacon nodes and validator clients to ensure compatibility with the upgrade.

According to Galaxy Digital researcher Christine Kim, “All client teams, except Lodestar, have released final software versions for the Dencun upgrade.”

A successful test of the upgrade took place on the Holešky testnet earlier this month, following previous runs on the Goerli and Sepolia testnets.

The upgrade is set to bring EIP-4844: proto-danksharding to the Ethereum blockchain. Rollups will have the capability to incorporate “blobs” of data on a beacon node under EIP-4844.

“The data in these blobs is not accessible to the EVM and is automatically deleted after a fixed time period (1-3 months),” a post on the Ethereum Organization’s website noted. “This means rollups can send their data much more cheaply and pass the savings on to end users in the form of cheaper transactions.”

The name Dencun is derived from a fusion of star and Devcon city names, according to the Ethereum Foundation. Dencun is a blend of Deneb, representing a star, and the location of Devcon 3, which is Cancun.

Ethereum is Growing

Crypto asset manager Grayscale noted in a blog post last week that the Dencun upgrade is one of several factors contributing to Ethereum entering its maturation phase, noting that the upgrade would help make Ethereum a “more scalable, efficient, and user-friendly platform.”

“Despite increasing conflict with competitors, Ethereum faces a number of tailwinds, including network effects and billions in network revenue, the Dencun upgrade, a flourishing Layer 2 ecosystem, and increasing use cases for its security budget,” Grayscale said. “Moreover, the potential for a spot Ethereum ETF could bring ETH the asset further into the awareness of both institutions and the broader public.”