Ethereum’s Dencun is now live on the Holesky testnet

Dencun upgrade will introduce “proto-danksharding” on Ethereum

article-image

issaro prakalung/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, featuring “proto-danksharding,” has successfully run on the Holešky testnet.

Holešky replaced Ethereum’s Goerli testnet, widely used to test validating and staking, in September last year, though it did not officially enter its “end of life” status until January this year. 

Testnets refer to a copy of the blockchain network which are used by developers to test smart contracts and protocols before they deploy on mainnet. 

Read more: Ethereum’s Holešky testnet launch hits a speed bump

Prior to running on Holešky, the Dencun upgrade also ran on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet and Sepolia testnet. 

Following the successful fork of each of these different testing environments, Ethereum’s development team is now figuring out a time to run the Dencun upgrade on Ethereum mainnet. 

Loading Tweet..

What’s so special about the Dencun upgrade?

The Dencun upgrade will enable proto-danksharding — introduced in Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844 — to the Ethereum blockchain.

Read more: Ethereum Improvement Proposals to watch in 2024

Nikolay Angelov, head of blockchain at Nexo, told Blockworks that EIPs carry enormous, potentially institutional weight in the digital asset space.

“Over the years, Ethereum has accommodated thousands of projects that utilize the network and its specific layers to create a diverse ecosystem of some of the most founding projects in the industry, [like] Tether,” Angelov said.

He notes that changes and enhancements to this foundational layer would require technological precision and synchronization across deployment. 

“In that sense, the testnets’ role is to mirror the mainnet’s functionalities by encouraging and committing to public testing of the deployment is a testament to the magnitude of Ethereum Upgrades,” he said. 

In the case of EIP 4844, Ethereum will be introducing a new transaction type, which involves “blobs,” or sharded data, that can live on the beacon node for a short period of time. 

Ethereum rollups today must put raw transaction data onto Ethereum using something called “calldata.” 

With the introduction of EIP 4844, rollup block submitters will instead be able to put this data into blobs. This will guarantee data availability and will also be much more affordable than calldata.

Read more: Ethereum devs consider ‘existential’ upgrade to the EVM

Data availability in blockchain refers to the process of storing data for a set period of time to ensure that all network participants will be able to access and retrieve it so that they can challenge whether or not the data is accurate.

Rollups only need this data to be available once and for a set period to give honest participants enough time to construct the rollup state and verify its accuracy. 

“While Ethereum has rightfully suffered from criticism over fees and processing times, the

Dencun concepts of proto-danksharding and “data blobs” have the mission to address and overcome those,” Angelov said.

He notes that should the upgrade on mainnet be successful, Ethereum will be able to manage data throughput and network costs much more efficiently, giving it a competitive advantage over other layer-1 solutions. 

“Ultimately, it is the ability to onboard new protocols into a much freer-flowing environment and move capital at lower costs that will ultimately enhance cryptocurrency adoption by delivering a more economically feasible, highly-scalable on-chain solution,” he said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.

article-image

Kado’s founder Emery Andrew spoke to Blockworks about the acquisition and what’s next for the team

article-image

LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino chatted with Blockworks about the firm’s next steps and its 10-year runway

article-image

Colosseum co-founder Matty Taylor is seeing “high-performance [Solana] founders showing a lot of interest in private trading technology”

article-image

Executives weigh the growth potential they see in the public stock and private credit/equities arenas

article-image

Players can stake ME, trade tokens and link wallets to climb the leaderboard