Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, expected in mid-March, is poised to bring major improvements in the form of ‘proto-danksharding’ via EIP-4844.
Dencun aims to facilitate the inclusion of off-chain ‘data chunks’ in Ethereum transactions. This is a move designed to allow additional data to be incorporated without degrading block processing times. This upgrade is considered a pivotal development to increase the scalability of Layer 2 solutions in the network by providing expanded data capacity.
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Developers are keenly anticipating the impact of EIP-4844 on gas rates. The Polygon zkEVM ecosystem suggests that upgrades can improve data availability for Layer 2 solutions in a cost-effective manner.
Polygon is a suite of scaling solutions designed to help developers create decentralized applications with low transaction fees. To improve the scalability of Ethereum-based apps, Polygon uses two scaling technologies: a sidechain called Polygon PoS and a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup network known as Polygon zkEVM.
zkEVM is a product that will benefit from Dencun for the time being.
Jordi Baylina, Polygon zkEVM co-founder and technical lead, shared insights on the current challenges facing ZK rollups (i.e. zkEVM), primarily centered around data availability costs. “The main challenge with current ZK rollups is the cost of data availability,” Baylina said, emphasizing the importance of EIP-4844 in potentially reshaping the capacity and gas pricing landscape for Polygon zkEVMs.
He also predicted that after implementing EIP-4844 within the Dencun upgrade, there will be a “triple increase in the overall data availability capacity of Ethereum,” which will help tremendously with ZK rollups such as Polygon zkEVM and Linea, Scroll, and zkSync. Baylin also predicts that “potential cost savings when combining EIP-4844 and data compression could range from 10 to 50 times,” adding, “The actual savings will depend on a variety of factors.” presented.
Changes for EIP-4844 integration
Regarding technical preparation for the upgrade, Baylin said that while the transition to Dencun may be simpler for optimistic rollups (such as Optimism and Arbitrum), specific skills are required to integrate EIP-4844 into Polygon zkEVM, which leverages ZK rollup technology. emphasized. correction. “ZK rollups have a slight disadvantage compared to optimistic rollups because they require the integration of BLS pairs within the proof,” he explained. This requires precompiled smart contracts for these crypto pairs, which were introduced in the Etrog hard fork of Polygon zkEVM in February.
Ahead of the full integration of EIP-4844, Baylina noted that a new attestation system in zkEVM that supports data compression is needed to optimize the benefits of EIP-4844 over Polygon zkEVM. “New proof systems that facilitate data compression are needed,” he said, indicating that work is underway to develop such systems.
Baylin added that efforts are being made to ensure that all necessary components are aligned with the activation of the Dencun hard fork on the mainnet.
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