The Ethereum mainnet upgrade is approaching! According to the records of the Ethereum core developer meeting (ACDE) held on the 4th, the Goerli testnet is expected to launch the Cancun upgrade on January 17th, while the Sepolia and Holesky testnets are tentatively scheduled for January 30th and February 7th, respectively. If the upgrades on the three testnets go smoothly, the mainnet Dencun upgrade could arrive as early as the end of February.
(Earlier summary:
Ethereum Cancun upgrade to go live on Goerli testnet in January next year, ETH and Layer2 sectors surge)
(Background:
After the Ethereum Cancun upgrade, Layer2 will face “bloody infighting”, how will the market evolve?)
Since the completion of the Shanghai upgrade in mid-April last year, validators have been able to withdraw their long-staked ETH from the Beacon Chain. Ethereum developers have been preparing for the next major upgrade – the Cancun upgrade (Dencun upgrade). Originally scheduled to launch by the end of 2023, the Cancun upgrade has been postponed to 2024 due to consensus issues on the testnets. The core proposal of this upgrade is EIP-4844: Proto-Danksharding, which improves Ethereum’s scalability significantly by introducing a new transaction type (blob-carrying transactions), and is expected to reduce transaction costs by 10-100 times. Other upgrade contents also contribute to further reducing fees and network congestion.
Note: The term “Dencun” is a combination of the Mexican city Cancun and Deneb. The “Cancun” upgrade happens at the Ethereum execution layer, which includes rule changes for all protocols. Additionally, the consensus layer responsible for block validation will undergo its own fork, which is referred to as “Deneb”. Therefore, they are collectively called “Dencun”.
Further reading:
Ethereum Cancun upgrade core: How does EIP-4844 Blob reduce costs by 100 times?
Goerli testnet to launch Cancun upgrade on January 17th
According to the records of the 178th Ethereum core developer meeting (ACDE) held on the 4th,
the core developers have made significant updates to the Dencun upgrade schedule for the Goerli, Sepolia, and Holesky testnets. The expected launch dates for the three testnets are as follows:
– Goerli testnet upgrade – January 17th, UTC time 6:32 (Taiwan time, January 17th, 2:32 PM)
– Sepolia testnet upgrade – January 30th, UTC time 22:51 (Taiwan time, January 31st, 6:51 AM)
– Holesky testnet upgrade – February 7th, UTC time 11:34 (Taiwan time, February 7th, 7:34 PM)
Tim Beiko updated the Cancun upgrade schedule on GitHub for the testnets
The mainnet Cancun upgrade is targeted for the end of February
Among them, the Goerli testnet upgrade is the most anticipated because Goerli has the highest number of participants and network load after the Ethereum mainnet. Therefore, successfully launching the Dencun upgrade on Goerli means that the Ethereum mainnet’s official launch of the Dencun upgrade is getting closer.
However, some developers expressed concerns that the upgrade interval between the Goerli and Sepolia testnets is too short, or that insufficient time for observation may lead to upgrade failures. In response, Lightclients (Ethereum light clients) stated that ACDE #179 is planned for January 18th. If any issues arise within 24 hours after the upgrade on the Goerli testnet, developers will have the opportunity to re-evaluate the subsequent schedule.
According to Coindesk’s report, during the Ethereum core developer meeting held in late December, the core developers expected the testnets to undergo the upgrade according to the aforementioned schedule and deploy the Dencun upgrade on the mainnet around the end of February. However, they also emphasized that these dates may still change based on the results of testnet forks.
Related Reports
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