The Kan Kun upgrade of the Ethereum mainnet is approaching! According to the records of the Ethereum core developer meeting (ACDE) held on the 4th, the Goerli testnet is expected to launch the Kan Kun upgrade on January 17th, while the Sepolia and Holesky testnets are tentatively scheduled for January 30th and February 7th respectively. If the upgrades on these three testnets go smoothly, the mainnet Dencun upgrade is expected to arrive by the end of February.
Background:
After the Shanghai upgrade of Ethereum was completed in mid-April last year, validators were able to withdraw ETH that had been staked in the beacon chain. Ethereum developers then began preparations for the next major upgrade – the Kan Kun upgrade (Dencun upgrade). Originally scheduled to launch by the end of 2023, the Kan Kun upgrade was delayed to 2024 due to consensus issues on the testnet. The core proposal of this upgrade is EIP-4844: Proto-Danksharding, which introduces a new transaction type (blob carrying transactions) to significantly improve the scalability of Ethereum and potentially reduce transaction costs by 10-100 times. Other upgrade contents also contribute to further reducing fees and network congestion.
Note: The term “Dencun” is a combination of the Mexican city Cancun and Deneb. The “Cancun” upgrade occurs at the Ethereum execution layer, including rule changes for all protocols. Additionally, the consensus layer responsible for block verification will undergo its own fork, which is referred to as “Deneb”. Therefore, it is collectively called “Dencun”.
According to the records of the 178th Ethereum core developer meeting (ACDE) held on the 4th, the core developers have made significant updates to the Dencun upgrade schedule for the Ethereum testnets Goerli, Sepolia, and Holesky. The expected launch dates for the three testnets are as follows:
– Goerli testnet upgrade – January 17th, UTC time 6:32 (Taiwan time 2:32 PM, January 17th)
– Sepolia testnet upgrade – January 30th, UTC time 22:51 (Taiwan time 6:51 AM, January 31st)
– Holesky testnet upgrade – February 7th, UTC time 11:34 (Taiwan time 7:34 PM, February 7th)
Tim Beiko has updated the Kan Kun upgrade schedule on GitHub.
The target for the mainnet Kan Kun upgrade is the end of February.
Among them, the Goerli testnet upgrade is the most anticipated because Goerli has the highest number of participants and network load after the Ethereum mainnet. Therefore, successfully launching the Dencun upgrade on Goerli indicates that the official launch of the Dencun upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet is getting closer.
However, some developers express concerns about the short interval between the Goerli and Sepolia testnet upgrades, fearing that insufficient time for observation may lead to upgrade failures. In response, Lightclients (Ethereum light clients) state that ACDE #179 is planned to be held on January 18, and if any issues occur on the Goerli testnet within 24 hours after the upgrade, developers will have the opportunity to review the subsequent schedule.
According to Coindesk’s report, during the Ethereum core developer meeting held in late December, the core developers expected the testnets to be upgraded according to the aforementioned schedule and planned to deploy the Dencun upgrade on the mainnet around the end of February. However, they also emphasized that these dates may still change based on the results of testnet forks.
Related reports:
– Ethereum Kan Kun upgrade postponed! Originally scheduled for the end of 2023, delayed to 2024 due to testnet consensus issues.
– Kan Kun upgrade: Exploring the next consensus layer revolution of Ethereum – Post-Deneb era.
– ETH Taipei: Vitalik Buterin attends Ethereum meetup in Taipei, Taiwan. Outstanding Taiwanese developers, key points of the Kan Kun upgrade, etc.