Ethereum’s Dencun Network Update Confirmed: What to Expect on March 13

Key Takeaways

• The Dencun update will go live on the Ethereum mainnet in two weeks.
• It’s a significant step toward Ethereum 2.0, with improved scalability and overall network efficiency.
• A spot ETH ETF could be decided on in May 2024.

The Ethereum Foundation has officially announced that the Dencun network upgrade has “successfully activated on all testnets”, and will launch  to the mainnet at epoch 269568, or March 13, 2024, 13:55 UTC.

This is one of the biggest overhauls to the Ethereum (ETH) network, introducing features such as data blobs and “proto-danksharding” that will see Ethereum overcome many bottlenecks. Given the present upward trajectory of the market and major competition from the likes of Solana (SOL), anticipation appears to be reaching a fever pitch once again for Ethereum, so what happens next?

Ethereum Dencun Update and EIP-4844

There is plenty to be excited about in the crypto markets at the moment, and the confirmation of Ethereum’s Dencun update is causing a huge stir. It’s one major step forward for the Ethereum 2.0 narrative, which sees the network ultimately reaching a point of unparalleled performance, transaction throughput, capability, and so on.

Essentially, it is still working to become the network it dreamed of being. A major component of Dencun is the introduction of the ephemeral data blobs alongside EIP-4844  aka, Proto-Danksharding.

This update will reduce resource requirements, reduce transaction costs, and improve network speeds, amongst other benefits for users and developers. Proto-Danksharding is a precursor to full Danksharding , which is envisioned to allow Ethereum to process over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS),

Ethereum Reaching Maturity

This is arguably the largest update since “The Merge ” in 2022, when Ethereum switched from using the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus method to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), thus allowing Ethereum to press on with its scalability, security, and sustainability goals.

According to analysis from Grayscale , Ethereum is going through its “adolescent phase”, and with this latest upgrade set to push its performance capabilities up a notch, the network is “growing up” whilst being rather perfectly situated to outperform its competitors.

Furthermore, Ethereum Layer-2s, which are the primary beneficiaries of the Dencun upgrade, are attracting levels of liquidity that rival some of the network’s biggest Layer-1 competitors, notable mentions include Optimism  and Arbitrum  have $945.75 million and $3.25 billion in total value locked (TVL), respectively.

Ethereum 2024

Following the launch of Dencun, it’s fair to say that projects on Ethereum are going to unlock even greater potential from both a development and user perspective. The likes of Solana have become popular because they perform better across almost every metric, but they do not have the latent potential that Ethereum possesses, thanks to its many, many on-chain projects.

Furthermore, ever since the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the push for a spot ETH ETF has become even stronger, with the decision on such an ETF anticipated in May this year. Should the Dencun update be a roaring success, 2024 could be extremely bullish for the ETH token and Ethereum-based tokens.