The world's most popular smart contract platform, Ethereum, has historically been plagued by issues of scalability, data storage, and extremely high transaction fees. With the increasing volume and sophistication of decentralized applications (dApps) and Layer 2 (L2) networks, the need for more affordable and rapid processing of data on Ethereum has increased exponentially.
To cope with these scalability limitations, the Cancun-Deneb (Dencun) upgrade, carried out in March 2024, brought about Proto-Danksharding by way of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844. This revolutionary upgrade is a significant milestone on Ethereum's roadmap, aimed at improving data availability, alleviating network congestion, and enhancing cost-effectiveness.
Proto-Danksharding not only makes the main Ethereum chain perform better but also makes overall L2 rollup efficiency stronger, which relies on Ethereum for verification and security of data. In other words, it enables Ethereum to handle massive amounts of data better—without sacrificing decentralization or security.
Understanding Proto-Danksharding
Proto-Danksharding is a precursor to full Danksharding, a future scalability solution for Ethereum in the long term. It mainly aims at enhancing data availability and lowering costs of operation for L2 rollups as well as dApps that are based on extensive data sets.
The innovation is in the creation of a new type of transaction, referred to as a "blob-carrying transaction." Such transactions may cache large blocks of data, referred to as "blobs," on the Ethereum network for a short period. Unlike calldata, which is retained indefinitely and contributes to blockchain bloating, blobs are temporary—about 30 days on average—before being pruned from the network.
This on-chain temporary storage architecture greatly improves data handling. Rather than overloading the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with long-term, large data loads, the network stores blobs on-chain as commitments cryptographically. This maintains the data integrity and verifiability without overloading the blockchain with long-term storage demands.
Key Components of Proto-Danksharding
Blobs: Large data bundles that are attachable to Ethereum blocks. Blobs are meant to keep data temporarily, storing costs that are much lower compared to regular calldata. Blobs make it possible for Ethereum to work with big datasets without burdening the blockchain long-term.
Blob-Carrying Transactions: Transactions that contain blob references, where large data sets are temporarily stored without taking up permanent space on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). These transactions facilitate the ability of decentralized applications and Layer 2 solutions to handle high-volume data with relatively low network fees.
Commitment References: In-chain references to the blobs, ensuring data validity, availability, and integrity without permanent storage. Commitment references facilitate maintaining trust in data and enabling nodes to check blob information correctness while enabling scalable operations.
Advantages of Proto-Danksharding
Lower Gas Costs: Through the use of blobs, storage and transmission costs for big data sets are much lower than with normal calldata. This means users and developers pay significantly lower fees per transaction, and decentralized applications (dApps) are easier to run. Proto-Danksharding essentially makes it easier for everyone to access the Ethereum network by lowering the cost barrier.
Improved Scalability: The addition of blobs allows Ethereum to better process and deal with larger amounts of data. This optimization enhances the overall throughput of the network and makes it capable of processing higher transaction loads without a drop in performance. It also brings Ethereum closer to realizing its ultimate vision of processing millions of transactions per second under complete Danksharding.
More Efficient Layer 2: Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions like Optimism, Arbitrum, and zkSync are able to use blobs to more economically store transaction information. This efficiency decreases their reliance on the root Ethereum chain for data storage, leading to quicker confirmation times, more seamless user experiences, and reduced developer costs. It ultimately fortifies Ethereum's base layer's symbiotic relationship with its scaling ecosystem.