On March 13th, Ethereum will undergo its latest network upgrade. Tenkun. The event certainly generated excitement among the network’s die-hard tech enthusiasts, but unlike the 2022 merger that transformed Ethereum into a more energy-efficient one, it generated relatively little mainstream buzz. proof of stake Model.
But make no mistake. According to the developer who runs the largest layer 2 network built on top of Ethereum, Dencun will be a huge event in blockchain history. It opens a new era of on-chain development possibilities.
“This is the beginning of a new paradigm for how Ethereum operates,” said Karl Floersch, CEO of OP Labs, which builds layer 2 networks. optimismsaid decryption.
“Since 2015, there has been nine years of stagnation in terms of user experience and capabilities,” he said. “A lot of fundamental research has had to be done.” “The basic research has been completed. Now we’re in ‘put this into practice’ mode.”
We talked to a lot of other layer 2 developers. decryption I echoed the same opinion. Dencun will transform Ethereum into a whole new machine, primarily by making layer 2 transactions exponentially cheaper and easier to verify.
Once the settlement agreements for all Layer 2 networks are updated within a month or two of Dencun’s launch, gas fees for most Layer 2s will be significantly lower. As long as the network passes these savings on to users, Polygon Labs vice president of product David Silverman said. decryption. Silverman said. polygon We want to make sure our users enjoy all of these savings.
Terence Tsao, developer at Offchain Labs decisionsaid decryption He “can say with certainty” that, assuming current network traffic levels, gas fees on Layer 2 networks should immediately drop by 75% once Dencun is implemented.
How do gasoline prices plummet so quickly? This is all thanks to “blobs,” which will soon introduce a new temporary way to store data on Ethereum through a process called proto-danksharding. Currently, data can only be stored on Ethereum forever, which is prohibitively expensive. Proto-danksharding allows layer 2 data to be temporarily stored for approximately one month. The process is safer but much cheaper.
Polygon Labs’ Silverman says he sees Ethereum as a path to understanding the potential impact of these changes. Over the past few years, Ethereum can best be described as a country back road, a reliable means of getting from A to B. get clogged easily.
Proto-danksharding will single-handedly expand Ethereum from its backroads to a four-lane highway, Silverman says. Eventually, full danksharding will allow the network to grow into a 16-lane highway. These additional lanes may be useful at some point, or they may be overkill. Nonetheless, it is Dencun who brought Ethereum (to maintain the metaphor) into the modern transportation era. And for developers like Silverman, the importance of this leap cannot be understated.
Gas costs won’t just be negligible after Dencun. Cryptocurrency companies and projects could fall to cover their costs, for example, just as Web2 giants like Google cover the costs of video conferencing and emails to lure users.
“We’re going into a world where most users will never experience gas,” Silverman said. “And it becomes abstract.”
The gasless future will obviously exist on a layer 2 network rather than the Ethereum mainnet. However, after Dencun, the overwhelming majority of retail user traffic will likely move permanently away from Ethereum and towards layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon, says Terence Tsao of Offchain Labs. And this seems to be exactly the way Ethereum developers want it to be.
Before focusing on Arbitrum, Tsao previously worked on the Ethereum mainnet. He said Dencun will bring about a major change in the way users interact with Ethereum, with the mainnet “fading into the background.” It remains essential as it protects data in Layer 2 networks and serves as an effective engine that facilitates communication between networks.
However, Tsao said the overwhelming majority of on-chain transactions, including NFTs, shoes and coffee, will never occur on the Ethereum mainnet again. story Tens of millions of dollars burned. Attempts to issue NFTs will soon become attractive relics of a bygone era.
Karl Floersch of OP Labs expects Dencun to reinvent what it means to build applications and exist on-chain.
“We have never seen what the world looks like when there is an abundance of blockspace,” he said. “We’ve never seen the kinds of applications that people can build.”
Floersch predicts that we will soon see a renaissance of cross-pollination across mediums, sites, and platforms, effectively removing the barrier to entry for integrating on-chain elements with any product. As one example, he presented the idea of a video game that creates NFTs within the game, interacts with DeFi protocols, and leverages social media to influence gameplay. Everything happens seamlessly and costs virtually nothing.
“Oh my God, I was dreaming about this.” He said. “We’re really excited for the world to see why we’re so passionate about cryptocurrency.”
Editor: Andrew Hayward