Optimism Chains Ready for EIP 4844 Upgrade, Here’s Why This Is Big Deal

In less than three weeks, blockchains built on top of Optimism’s technology OP Stack will undergo the Ecotone upgrade. Expected to go live on the next day after Dencun’s mainnet activation, it is set to bring blobs and EIP 4844 to one of the most important EVM L2s.

OP Chains welcome EIP 4844, dApps expect up to 100x lower fees

The Ecotone upgrade will go live in the Optimism ecosystem on March 14, 2024, at 12:01 a.m. UTC. It will introduce EIP 4844 or “Proto-Danksharding” to OP Mainnet-like blockchains. As such, node operators need to upgrade their software, OP Labs says in an official statement.

The blobs are coming.

4844 will be live on OP Chains w/ the Ecotone upgrade on Thurs., March 14 at 00:00:01UTC, provided the upgrade proposal is approved by @Optimism Governance.

Node operators need to take steps to prepare for the upgrade. Details:https://t.co/LXEzVU8Prl

— OP Labs (@OPLabsPBC) February 23, 2024

Node operators need to connect to new endpoints soon after the Ecotone activation, batch transactions will be sent as 4844 blobs, and blobs can only be retrieved from Beacon nodes.

Blobs represent brand-new data instances that are set to be introduced by the Cancun-Deneb (Dencun) upgrade in Ethereum (ETH) in mid-March.

As covered by U.Today previously, yesterday, Ethereum (ETH) developers confirmed March 13 as the final date for mainnet Dencun activation. The upgrade will make Ethereum (ETH) data logistics more resource-efficient; dominant L2s will be the biggest beneficiaries of the new scheme.

The team of Velodrome Finance, one of the most advanced DeFis on Optimism, shared its expectations from the upcoming Ecotone activation:

On March 14th, Optimism is going to get a lot cheaper. EIP-4844 will be deployed immediately on OPstack chains, reducing L2 user fees by 10-100x. Get ready for a new era on Optimism

According to L2Fees tracker, Optimism is the fourth cheapest L2 rollup on Ethereum (ETH) as of Feb. 24, 2024.

What’s next for Ethereum after Dencun?

Sending ETH via Optimism only costs $0.14; only zkSync and Loopring offer more affordable transfers. In terms of TVL, Optimism remains the second largest L2 responsible for 26% of net funds locked in the segment.

Meanwhile, Ethereum developer community has already started discussing the next phases of EVM progress. Replacing blockspace-intensive calldata with blobs during Dencun, Ethereum (ETH) is set to migrate toward the Surge phase of its ambitious road map.

The next stages of its progress — the Verge, the Purge and the Splurge — become closer as Ethereum’s Electra hard fork started taking its shape. Expected to go live in late 2024 or early 2025, Electra will enhance validator deposits and change the rules of execution layer functions.

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