Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation Describes Dencun as One of the Most Complex Forks Since the Merge, Incorporating the Majority of Implemented EIPs

Following the Dencun upgrade on Ethereum’s mainnet on March 13, significant reductions in transaction fees have been observed across various Ethereum layer-2 (L2) protocols. Considered a pivotal scalability-focused enhancement, Dencun is hailed as one of the most substantial upgrades since the Merge.

Starknet, a leading Ethereum-based L2 protocol, has experienced a remarkable 99% decrease in gas fees post-upgrade, with current fees plummeting to $0.04 from over $6 prior to Dencun’s implementation. Similarly, other L2 platforms such as Optimism, Base, and Zora OP mainnet have witnessed significant declines in gas fees. Optimism’s average transaction fees now stand at $0.05, while Base and Arbitrum recorded fees of $0.064 and $0.5, respectively. zkSync Era saw fees drop to $0.16. Notably, within 24 hours of the upgrade, Optimism and its affiliated chains, like Base, saw the most substantial reductions in gas fees.

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The Dencun hard fork introduced nine Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), notably EIP-484, which introduced data blobs, offering L2s a new transaction data type. These data blobs bypass the traditional “call data” process, enabling faster transactions at reduced costs. This upgrade, in development for two years, marks a significant milestone for Ethereum. Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation described Dencun as “the most complex fork we’ve shipped since the Merge” and highlighted its tie with Byzantium for the “most total EIPs in a fork.”

While the reduction in gas fees aligns with the scalability objectives of the upgrade, experts caution that Dencun may offer only a temporary solution to Ethereum’s scaling challenges. As the adoption of rollups utilizing blobs increases, competition for blob space may intensify, potentially leading to higher fees and transaction costs in the future.