Updated: March 28, 2024, 2:49 AM EDT
Ethereum’s blob transaction rate has surged, exceeding the network’s set capacity. This escalation follows the introduction of inscriptions on Blob, a feature that increases the demand for Blob utilization.
Ethereum core developers implemented the Dencun upgrade earlier this month, adding Blob transactions to make layer 2 transactions cheaper. They succeeded by allowing layer 2 to use blobs instead of the “call data” method for posting transactions. This provides a direct path to fee savings and passes these savings on to end users.
However, with the recent introduction of inscriptions for blobs, stress testing of the feature has begun. Inspired by Bitcoin Ordinals, these inscriptions create unique fungible and non-fungible artifacts included in blob transactions.
Analysis from the Dune Analytics dashboard managed by Hildobby shows important trends. Currently, 40% of blob transactions involve inscriptions. This is the highest usage of published blobs among other Ethereum Layer 2 such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Linea.
As interest and usage grow, Blob is operating at full capacity. 100% operation rate observed.
The data further highlights the significant backlog in the mempool, with 160 blobs waiting to be processed, according to data from EtherNow. Ethereum can only contain a maximum of 6 blobs per block, which represents a backlog 40 times higher than can be accommodated in a single block. This is called blob contention.
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