Ethereum's 'Dencun' Upgrade: First Testnet Deployment Expected in January

• Ethereum Developers Accelerate Testing for Upcoming Dencun Upgrade
• Targeting January 17 for the Goerli Test Network
• Timeline Adjustments and Future Plans
• Dencun: The Next Major Upgrade

Ethereum Developers Accelerate Testing for Upcoming Dencun Upgrade

Ethereum$2,315 -2.42% developers are stepping up their testing procedures for the forthcoming Dencun upgrade, a significant landmark anticipated for the coming year. This upgrade is expected to enhance data storage capacity via a new mechanism referred to as proto-danksharding.

Targeting January 17 for the Goerli Test Network

In a biweekly call that took place on Thursday, developers stated they're planning for the Goerli test network (testnet) to execute the Dencun upgrade by January 17. This eagerly awaited upgrade will activate "proto-danksharding," leading to reduced fees for layer 2 rollups and scaling the blockchain by expanding space for "blobs" of data.

Tim Beiko, the protocol support lead at the Ethereum Foundation, noted during the call that any severe issues encountered could lead to a cancellation of the implementation. He also mentioned that a blog post on the fork would ideally be released during the week of January 8th, giving stakeholders at least a week to prepare for the update.

Timeline Adjustments and Future Plans

The Dencun upgrade was initially planned for the final quarter of 2023, but due to the engineering complexities of the update, developers postponed it to 2024.

The developers also discussed a provisional timeline for the Dencun testing upgrade. The plan is to implement another test network, Sepolia, on January 31. This will be followed by the Holesky testnet on February 7. If all goes according to plan, the changes are then expected to be deployed on the mainnet towards the end of February. However, these dates may be subject to change, based on the results of the testnet forks.

Dencun: The Next Major Upgrade

Dencun is anticipated to be the first significant upgrade since Shapella, which was rolled out earlier this year and facilitated staked ether (ETH) withdrawals from the blockchain.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker