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Ethereum Aims for January Testnet Release of ‘Dencun’ Upgrade

Ethereum Targets January for First Testnet Deployment of Next Big Upgrade, 'Dencun'

Ethereum developers are ramping up their testing efforts for the upcoming Dencun upgrade, a significant milestone anticipated for next year. This upgrade will introduce a new process called “proto-danksharding,” which will expand data storage capacity on the Ethereum blockchain.

During a recent biweekly call, developers discussed their plans to target Jan. 17 for the Goerli test network to undergo the Dencun upgrade. This upgrade is expected to enable “proto-danksharding,” which will decrease fees for layer 2 rollups and increase the blockchain’s scalability by expanding space for data “blobs.”

Tim Beiko, protocol support lead at the Ethereum Foundation, mentioned that if any major issues arise before the target date, they can always cancel the upgrade. Ideally, a blog post for the fork will be released during the week of January 8th, giving users at least a week to update.

Originally slated for the last quarter of 2023, Dencun has been rescheduled for 2024 due to the complex nature of the upgrade. The developers have also outlined a draft timeline for the Dencun testing upgrade, with plans to run tests on the Sepolia test network on Jan. 31, the Holesky testnet on Feb. 7, and then proceed to deploy the changes on the mainnet towards the end of February. However, these dates are subject to change depending on the outcomes of the testnet forks.

Dencun will be the first major upgrade since the Shapella upgrade earlier this year, which enabled staked ether withdrawals from the blockchain.

For more information on the upcoming Dencun upgrade, you can read the article “Meet ‘Dencun.’ Ethereum Developers Are Already Planning Next Hard Fork.”