Blobs are temporary storage spaces in Ethereum blocks that store roll-up summaries (hashes). These provide a cheaper and more efficient way for both Optimistic and Zero Knowledge rollups.
These were introduced by the Dencun Upgrade and were a part of the Surge series of upgrades. The upgrade provided 6 blobs per block which could be scaled up to 64 blobs per block.
It is noteworthy that blobs are available to institutional users like rollups and developers and are not meant for ordinary users.
Benefits
- Efficiency: Blobs made Ethereum more efficient in handling rollup data. Now, rollup platforms have access to a more efficient and fast way of finalizing transactions while getting Ethereum’s security.
- Cost: Blobs brought down the cost of processing a rollup summary from over 200 Gwei to just 1 Gwi and sometimes even less.
Disadvantages
- Temporary Solution: Blobs are temporary solutions and only act as an intermediate between the unscaled Ethereum and the Sharding upgrade.
