The Dencun Upgrade was an Ethereum scalability solution that improved transaction speeds on its blockchain via a rollup feature called “blobs”. It is also known as Proto-Dank Sharding after the scientists Protolambda and Dankrad Feist who created it.
This upgrade attached around 6 blobs per block with an eventual target of adding blobs per Ethereum block.
It was previously known as EIP 4844.
As a result of this upgrade, Ethereum was able to scale from 15 TPS to around an estimated 1500 to 3000 TPS (including blob transactions). In real terms, Ethereum still has 10-15 TPS, and the blob transactions are only available to bulk transaction generators like Layer-2s and DeFi protocols.
How Does It Work?
After the Dencun Upgrade, large transaction generators like Layer-2s, DeFi protocols, and dApps have a cheaper way to post rollup summaries to the Ethereum blockchain for finalization.
Earlier rollup data was either posted as an ordinary transaction or as call data.
- Posting rollups as ordinary transactions (by ZK rollups) consumed all the gas meant for retail users and increased gas prices which then made it expensive for Layer-1 users.
- Posting rollup data into “call data” (by optimistic rollups) was more costlier than ZK rollup but it provided a faster execution. However, it also made the Ethereum blockchain bulky.
