The Cancun upgrade will be activated tonight. Which targets will it benefit?

Original title: "The Cancun upgrade is finally here, what targets will it benefit?" 》

Original author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily

Later today, Ethereum is expected to reach the block height  ;269568 Officially activate Dencun hard fork upgrade.

The so-called Dencun upgrade is actually a collective name for the two upgrades of Deneb and Cancun. The former is oriented to the consensus layer and the latter is oriented to the execution layer. Among them, Cancun The Chinese translation is the “Cancun Upgrade” that the Ethereum community has long awaited.  

Before the official launch of the main network, in the past few months, Ethereum core developers and major client teams have successively launched on Devnet, Goerli testnet, Sepolia testnet, and Holesky testnet deployed the Dencun upgrade to test and observe the upgrade and subsequent network operations.

Upgrade content: Nine major EIPs in total, focusing on EIP-4844 

According to Ethereum According to the arrangement of the Dencun Foundation, a total of nine EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) will be implemented for this Dencun upgrade, specifically:

· EIP-1153  : About transient storage opcodes;

· EIP-4788 : About beacon block roots in EVM;

· EIP-4844 : About sharded Blob transactions;

· EIP-5656 : About MCOPY, the memory copy instruction;

· EIP-6780 : About SELFDESTRUCT in the same transaction;

· EIP-7044 : About permanently valid voluntary exit signatures;

· EIP-7045 : About adding the maximum timeslot included in the proof;

· EIP-7514 : About adding Maximum Epoch drain limit;

· EIP-7516 : Regarding the BLOBBASEFEE opcode.  

For readers who are not familiar with Ethereum development terminology, you do not need to understand the specific content of each of the above EIPs, just focus on this The most important update of Dencun - EIP-4844.

EIP-4844, also known as Proto-Danksharding, is the front-end solution of Danksharding, the current mainstream sharding idea in the Ethereum community. The main content of EIP-4844  (Proto-Danksharding) is to introduce a new transaction type "Blob transaction" to Ethereum, by adding an additional temporary data space Blob to the block on the Ethereum main network , specially used to process Layer 2 related transactions, thereby significantly reducing Layer 2 transaction fees.

Micro-analysis: How do blobs affect Layer 2 transaction costs?

Earlier this week, Ethereum core developer eric.eth posted on the X platform that the implementation of EIP-4844 "will reduce Ethereum transaction fees." "Down to US$0.01" - eric.eth later admitted that this sentence was a misinterpretation of the concept. What it wanted to express was that the gas cost of Layer 2 transactions in Ethereum will be reduced to about US$0.01.

So, how does "Blob Transaction" help Layer 2 achieve downtime? What about the efficiency enhancement? After the upgrade, can the transaction cost of the Layer 2 network really be reduced to an extremely low level of $0.01?

To answer these questions, we first need to focus on the operating mechanism of Layer 2. Whether it is Optimistic Rollup or ZK Rollup, as long as it is Layer 2 that relies on the Ethereum mainnet as the DA layer in a narrow sense, it will follow the following operating model-Layer 2 needs to be traded, The proof and execution results are written into the calldata data space in the Ethereum main network, thereby passing its history to Ethereum, relying on the latter to ensure the decentralization and security of the network.

This data synchronization model that relies on calldate has been running stably for a long time, but there has always been a serious problem——  ;The calldate write transaction submitted by Layer 2 needs to compete in the same fee market with all transactions on the Ethereum main network. This will cause the transaction cost of Layer 2 to be significantly affected by the gas status of the Ethereum main network.

In order to ensure that the calldate write transaction can be executed smoothly on the Ethereum main network, Layer 2 will pass on this part of the cost to the transaction executed on Layer 2 Users. Currently, the cost of calldate writing transactions accounts for the vast majority of Layer 2 transaction costs, which is why users generally feel that the current Layer 2 transaction costs are still too expensive.

After EIP-4844 is implemented, Ethereum will add an additional data space Blob to the block, specifically for processing Layer 2 related transactions. By then, Layer 2 will no longer need to write data to the calldate space. Instead, it will use the Blob space to complete data synchronization operations. In addition, subsequent Layer 2 related transactions will be treated as two separate transactions with other Ethereum mainnet transactions. separate fee markets so that they no longer interfere with each other.

It is worth mentioning that in order to prevent additional Blobs from being added The data space will put too much burden on the Ethereum main network nodes, and the data in the Blob will be cleared regularly, which also means that the historical data storage mechanism of Layer 2 will undergo some new changes in the future.  

Based on the above analysis, it can be expected that after the implementation of EIP-4844, the data synchronization cost of Layer 2 network will drop significantly, thereby indirectly reducing Layer 2 User transaction costs on the network; in addition,As the block space originally occupied by Layer 2 is released (transferred to Blob), the fee competition pressure faced by other Ethereum mainnet transactions will also be alleviated, so EIP- 4844 will also reduce the transaction fee cost of the Ethereum mainnet to a certain extent.

As for how far the transaction costs on major Layer 2 will be reduced after the upgrade is completed, Optimism has launched a  welovetheblobs's website is used to visually query the cost changes of various operations, such as The transaction cost of executing a swap on Velodrome will be reduced from $0.52 to $0.03 in real time.

Positive targets: What else besides Layer 2?

For investors, in addition to understanding the content and functions of Dencun's upgrade, the most interesting topic is what potential benefits this upgrade will bring. target.

First of all, the Dencun upgrade will naturally directly benefit the entire Layer 2 sector. L2 BEAT data shows that the number of Layer 2 currently in operation is as high as 45, and the number of Layer 2 to be launched on the main network is also 34, which includes Optimism (OP), Arbitrum (ARB) that we are already quite familiar with. ), Starknet (STRK), Metis (METIS), Manta Pacific (MANTA) and other issued currency projects, as well as unissued currency projects such as zkSync, Blast, Linea, Scroll and other projects.  

With Dencun upgrades especially EIP-4844 With the implementation of the project, the above-mentioned projects and more Layer 2 not mentioned will achieve obvious "cost reduction and efficiency increase", allowing the Layer 2 network to wipe out low-cost Layer 1 such as Solana in terms of transaction costs. the existing disadvantages. In the long term, reduced transaction attrition will help major Layer 2 attract and retain more users, and will also help attract more developers to conduct multi-faceted development attempts, thus enabling continuous improvement. Ecological vitality.

Among the many Layer 2, zkSync may need special mention, because zkSync founder Alex Gluchowski once mentioned that it will be included in EIP-4844 After the implementation, the new expansion solution zkPorter will be launched, and zkPorter needs to rely on zkSync's native token to ensure data availability. This may mean that zkSync should not be too far away from issuing coins.  

In addition to directly benefiting Layer 2, the Dencun upgrade will also indirectly benefit other related fields and tracks.

For example, games and social networking projects above Layer 2 that have "high concurrency requirements" and "low unit value" may usher in a window of accelerated growth. . Currently, due to the problem of still high costs, the mainstream application types above Layer 2 are still "low concurrency requirements" and "high unit value" projects represented by DeFi, because only such projects can achieve higher level Achieve ideal economic effects at the lowest cost, and with the advent of Dencun upgrade, this situation may also usher in a change.

Furthermore, Storage concept projects may also usher in certain development opportunities due to changes in Layer 2’s storage requirements for transaction history. Since Blob does not store data permanently like calldate, this means that Layer2 needs to find other ways to store historical transaction data for a long time. New needs are new opportunities.

In addition,If Layer 2 can further win market consensus after reducing transaction costs, RaaS-type "water delivery" services may also usher in more Utilization needsBut this is a relatively long-term topic.

In short, as the Dencun upgrade gradually becomes a reality,the overall fundamentals of the Ethereum ecosystem will surely improve significantly. The benefits will also radiate to all components within the Ethereum ecosystem.

In the short term after the upgrade is completed, users may not have any other obvious perceptions except the reduction in Layer 2 fees, but in the long term, The potential ecological vitality that the Dencun upgrade itself can bring and its role as a foundation for subsequent upgrades will undoubtedly push Ethereum to a new stage of development.

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