Ethereum’s next update

What is Dencun?

With the upcoming Dencun upgrade, Ethereum will adopt EIP-4844, commonly called proto-danksharding. This upgrade introduces type-3 transactions (blobs), bringing new opportunities and new complexity for Layer 2 networks to optimize how they settle to the base layer.

What is the Pectra hardfork?

Prague-Electra—aka Pectra— is slated to be the next major Ethereum upgrade. Specific details are still under development, but potential improvements include the EVM Object Format (EOF) and the ability for transaction history to expire.

While Verkle Trees were previously considered for Pralectra, recent updates from the EF Core Devs suggest they'll likely be included in a future upgrade, possibly called Osaka.

Read the latest notes from Christine Kim from the Ethereum All Core Developers Consensus Call.

Ethereum Devs Explore Electra

Learn about the next major consensus layer upgrade Electra.

Listen to the Episode

All About EVM Object Format (EOF)

A bundle of changes geared towards upgrading the EVM.

Read About EOF

Statelessness, State Expiry and History Expiry

Learn about how Core Devs are thinking about the size of Ethereum's state over time.

Join the hundreds of projects that trust Blocknative

Is there any way to watch the Pectra hardfork live and in real time?

Yes! Once the next upgrade is scheduled, we will update this page and you will be able to watch the upgrade launch on Ethernow.

Ethernow.xyz is a real time observability platform for Ethereum and you will be able to watch blocks and transactions come into the mempool at the exact time as Pectra is rolled out.

Ethernow.xyz (1)

Observe Ethereum in real-time with Ethernow

Gas

How Self-Built Blocks Unintentionally Introduce Base Fee Volatility

Thank You to Toni Wahrstätter, Justin Drake, Barnabé Monnot, Julian Ma and others who contributed to the discourse and provided feedback on the piece.

Blair Marshall

Developer

No More Decoding Headaches: Announcing The Blocknative Decoding API

For builders working with Layer 2 (L2) solutions, one challenge has consistently slowed development progress: decoding the complex data streams used for transaction settlement onto the L1 chain. This process is not only time-consuming but also requires significant technical expertise.

Blocknative

Gas

Blob Inversion: An Investigation Into the June 20th 2024 Blob Spike

Thank you to all those who provided input and review on this piece, including Julian Ma, Soubhik Deb, Barnabe Monnot, Max Resnick, Mallesh Pai, Davide Crapis, Ed Felten, Roberto Bayardo, Potusz, and the Blocknative team. On Thursday, June 20, 2024, the Blob Base Fee spiked to 8,000 GWEI, making blobdata (type 3 transactions) more expensive than calldata (type 2 transactions) for the second time since the Dencun upgrade. During the inversion event, L2s incurred an estimated overpayment of ~166 ETH (approximately $550,000 USD) by including data in batches sent to Ethereum as blobdata instead of calldata. What happened? Why did we see another spike similar to the blobscription craze?