TL;DR
- Starknet, a leading Ethereum Layer 2, is set to launch significant upgrades in conjunction with Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade. These enhancements aim to reduce transaction fees and include additional fee-saving measures in its protocol.
- The Dencun hard fork incorporates the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-4844), which introduces a new method for rollups to add less expensive data to blocks.
- Starknet version 0.13.1 will utilize EIP-4844 post-Dencun, which is expected to significantly benefit Layer 2 as call data accounts for nearly 90% of the gas fees Starknet pays to post transactions to the Ethereum mainnet.
Starknet, a prominent Ethereum Layer 2, is preparing to launch substantial upgrades aimed at reducing transaction fees. These enhancements will be introduced in tandem with Ethereum’s highly anticipated Dencun upgrade. The Starknet Foundation has also announced the implementation of additional fee-saving measures on its protocol, which will be rolled out concurrently with the Dencun upgrade.
Blobs are coming to Ethereum mainnet…
Starknet will support them from day 1—and actually has mechanisms on the way to slash fees on top of Dencun.
So, what to expect from Dencun on March 13th?
Three words: Much. Lower. Fees. pic.twitter.com/14yLsQtVhG
— Starknet 🦇🔊 (@Starknet) March 11, 2024
The Dencun hard fork, considered the most crucial upgrade to Ethereum’s protocol since its transition to proof-of-stake consensus in October 2022, incorporates the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-4844). This proposal alters the way Ethereum rollups store data on the mainnet. Several layer-2 rollups carry out the compilation and processing of transactions off-chain, then provide a condensed verification of these transactions to the Ethereum blockchain.
EIP-4844 presents a novel method for rollups to add less expensive data to blocks by introducing blob space as an alternative to using call data for storage. Historically, the practice of utilizing call data for storing cryptographic evidence of off-chain batch transactions has been expensive. This is because all Ethereum nodes are required to indefinitely process the data that is stored on-chain.
Starknet 0.13.1: Transitioning to Cost-Effective ‘Blobs’ Transaction Type
Proto-danksharding, named after the researchers who proposed EIP-4844, enables rollups to transmit and attach data blobs to blocks. This information cannot be accessed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine and is automatically removed after a set duration of 18 days.
The Starknet Foundation has announced a dedicated hard fork upgrade set to coincide with Dencun. Starknet version 0.13.1 will transition from the “expensive” call data method for sending data to Ethereum to the more cost-effective “blobs” transaction type, significantly reducing fees.
Layer 2 is expected to benefit significantly as call data accounts for nearly 90% of the gas fees Starknet pays to post transactions to the Ethereum mainnet. Starknet developers have rolled out version 0.13.1, which will utilize EIP-4844 post-Dencun. Starknet anticipates that the enhancements will result in a twofold increase in the anticipated fee savings to be realized through Dencun.
While not all of the fee optimizations will be deployed on March 13, the Starknet Foundation will start subsidizing the difference between current fees and their expected price once all of the upgrades have been activated in the future. These new measures follow Starknet’s introduction of a 50% reduction in computation costs and a 25% decrease in data availability expenses with the launch of its v0.13.0 upgrade in January.
