# Ethereum Developers Set March 13 for Ethereum’s Major ‘Dencun’ Network Upgrade

Source: https://unchainedcrypto.com/ethereum-developers-set-march-13-for-ethereums-major-dencun-network-upgrade
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Ethereum-Developers-Set-March-13-for-Ethereums-Major-Dencun-Network-Upgrade?index=0x65c529dad2777a5a7bb2c48988971198118c04c074d13da41ddfd01b78df76e36c94e851
Submitted by pedrovilela.eth on 2024-02-08 UTC, 3 upvotes, 2 comments

## Summary

Ethereum developers have set March 13 as the activation date for "Dencun," the network's next upgrade, which introduces "proto-danksharding." The upgrade is described as the most substantial Ethereum update since "Shapella" last April, and it is expected to reduce transaction costs for layer 2 rollups such as Arbitrum and Optimism. Developers chose the date at their biweekly Zoom meeting on Thursday, a day after the upgrade was successfully triggered on the "Holešky" test network.

## Article

Dencun, which will introduce “proto-danksharding,” is the most substantial update to Ethereum since last April’s “Shapella” upgrade.

Dencun will introduce a new feature that is expected to reduce the cost of transacting for layer 2 rollups.

(Unsplash)

Posted February 8, 2024 at 12:46 pm ET.

Ethereum developers have set the activation of the next network upgrade called “Dencun” for March 13. Dencun will introduce a technical feature called “proto-danksharding” and stands as the most substantial update to Ethereum since the “Shapella” upgrade last April that allowed people to withdraw their previously locked staked ether for the first time.

Read More: Battle of the Blocks: PoW vs. PoS

A hard fork for the second-largest blockchain by market capitalization, Dencun, if adopted by the majority of node operators, will irreversibly change the underlying code of Ethereum. The name Dencun combines “Deneb,” the name of a star in the Cygnus constellation, with “Cancun,” where Devcon 3 took place.

One of the most widely-discussed changes is the upgrade’s “proto-danksharding” feature which introduces a new type of transaction involving “blobs,” a memory space for storing transaction data. The advent of blob-carrying transactions is expected to reduce the cost of transacting for layer 2 rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism.

Read More: What Is Proto-Danksharding?

Software developers decided on the date on Thursday morning at their biweekly Zoom meeting focused on coordinating changes to the blockchain’s consensus layer, the component of Ethereum dedicated to establishing agreement among network participants over the state of the network.

The announcement comes one day after Ethereum developers successfully triggered the upgrade on a test network named “Holešky.” Test networks are instances of blockchains where developers and users can experiment with changes to the functionalities of the network without affecting the real, live network.

The price of ETH, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, has increased 2% in the past 24 hours to $2,435 at the time of publication, data from CoinGecko shows.

## Comments

**macbudkowski.eth**: I remember listening to a podcast with Vitalik in 2021 where he was talking about PoS, L2s & proto-bank sharing. It felt like a distant vision, and it's crazy to see that it's finally happening.

I hope it might increase the tipping activity on Kiwi as the gas fees should be significantly lower, so sending $0.30 will start to make sense.

**tim**: The composite names for the upgrades always sound so fucking cursed and dare I say, the person that had the idea for this should be fired xD

Dencun??? Shapella??? They sound like some infectious diseases that you DON'T want to have.