Dencun upgrade expected on March 13 to bring 'blobs' to Ethereum mainnet

Quick Take

Ethereum core developers have decided a deployment date for the Dencun upgrade.
It is scheduled for activation at slot 8626176, estimated for March 13 at around 8:55 am ET.

Core Ethereum developers have agreed on a specific time to deploy the Dencun upgrade.

Dencun is scheduled for activation at slot number 8626176, according to Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation. The slot number is currently estimated to occur on 13 March at around 8:55 am ET.

The Dencun upgrade, incorporating the much-anticipated proto-danksharding feature through EIP-4844, will introduce blob transactions and transient storage, among other technical enhancements.

EIP-4844 aims to incorporate off-chain "data blobs," enabling the inclusion of more data in Ethereum transactions without affecting block processing times.

Blobs are designed to help Ethereum better support Layer 2 networks, such as zkSync, Optimism and Arbitrum. They help to address the data storage requirements for these networks.

This upgrade follows a series of test deployments of Dencun, including on the Goerli testnet on January 17, the Sepolia testnet on January 30, and the Holesky testnet on February 7. These test phases were critical in ensuring the upgrade’s readiness for the main network deployment.

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