Dencun upgrade goes live on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet

The long-awaited Dencun upgrade has finally arrived for the Goerli testnet, although low participation resulted in it failing to be finalized in the expected time.

The Dencun upgrade, which includes a major update known as “proto-danksharding” designed to help reduce layer-2 transaction fees, went live on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet on Jan. 17, according to Tim Beiko, community manager at Ethereum Foundation.

Beiko acknowledged that the participation among validators for the upgrade was “not great,” but noted that a similar outcome “was expected.” It also appears the upgrade resulted in a “chain split” as not all validators synced with each other for the update.

Following its deployment on Goerli, the next phase of the upgrade is scheduled to take place on Jan. 31 on the Sepolia testnet, with the Holesky testnet activating Dencun on Feb. 7. Once Dencun runs smoothly on all three testnets, the Ethereum Foundation plans to roll out the upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet by the end of Q1 2024.

Dencun marks the final upgrade for the Goerli testnet. Subsequently, both the client and Ethereum Foundation testing teams will discontinue support for the Goerli testnet after the completion of the Dencun upgrade.

The Dencun upgrade, known as EIP-4844, aims to increase blockchain space for data blobs and slash layer-2 rollup fees by activating proto-danksharding. This data storage expansion should scale Ethereum’s blockchain, enabling more transaction capacity without hiking gas fees.