Ethereum has finally announced a tentative release date for its upgrade schedule. The network plans to launch a new mainnet hard fork, Dencun, in the first quarter.
If all goes well, the Ethereum team is considering the following dates to fork the public testnet:
- Görli – January 17
- Sepolia – January 30
- Holsky – February 7
According to the developers, Goerli will not be added to the testing plan after the hard fork. The network is scheduled to depreciate and it is time for an Electra/Prague upgrade. It is yet to be determined whether Ethereum will focus on structuring upgrades around small improvements or big core features..
The year has been off to a good start for ETH, up 4.62% in the last 24 hours. It is trading at $2,381.64 and its latest price is Ethereum Predictions It is expected to reach $5,000 in the next 12 months.
For upcoming upgrades, Ethereum is set to launch with EIP – 4844 (Proto-Danksharding). The upgrade reduces data availability costs across the L2 chain.
Likewise, the network plans to release ERC-4337 along with the ERC-6900 extension. ERC-4337 was released in March 2023 and will play a pivotal role in future changes for Ethereum end users.
EIP-1153 is also scheduled to be released in 2024. The upgrade will help smart contracts use ephemeral storage. Storage is reset after every transaction is executed, reducing gas costs associated with data storage.
Another upgrade that Ethereum is paying attention to is EIP-4788. The goal of the upgrade is to add a beacon block root to all EVM blocks. These changes will help provide operational efficiencies and improved security to liquid staking protocols like Lido.
The MCOPY opcode, or EIP-5656, optimizes the data copy process in memory during smart contract execution. Faster memory operations mean faster execution and give developers more tools.
With EIP-6780, Ethereum handles the SELFDESTRUCT opcode. The current opcode allows smart contracts to delete themselves. The network limits smart contracts from self-destructing to better manage state size.
Ethereum will not restrict further upgrades until 2024. But this is the most notable and impactful upgrade that will improve your network this year.