With the aid of a big data experiment, Ethereum engineers are furthering preparations for the imminent ETH upgrade.
Christine Kim explains the results of a data experiment done by Dankrad Feist to determine how well the Ethereum mainnet can handle large blocks.
On Ethereum, blocks with extra data propagated for sustained durations of 10 slots, ranging from 128 kB to 1 MB. Notably, across the whole range of block sizes, the Ethereum network remained stable and did not appear to encounter any issues with the higher data loads.
The team looked at data like bandwidth use, block propagation times, and the amount of missed attestations to see how these big blocks affected them.
However, there was just one instance of a block reorg during propagation involving a block with 1MB more data, and there were no anomalies caused by block size across all metrics.
In light of the experiment, Feist proposed increasing the maximum number of blobs per block in the EIP 4844 specification from four to six.
He also advised reevaluating the four-second deadline for accepting blocks in a slot in light of the projected increase in the quantity of data that Ethereum nodes will send.
In addition to EIP 4844, Ethereum client developers are thinking about incorporating EIP 4788 in the Deneb update. EIP 7045, which is “increase max attestation inclusion slot” and “fixed optional exit domains,” in addition to the two EIPs already mentioned, is also being considered for inclusion in Deneb.
A trust-minimized approach for smart contracts and decentralised apps (dApps) to access the consensus layer and data like validator balances, activity, and rewards is introduced in EIP 4788, to offer some background.
More on EIP 4844
The sixth official test network for EIP 4844 is about to commence, according to Christine Kim’s report on the Ethereum All Core Developers Consensus Call. The implementation of Ethereum’s EIP 4844 might be argued to be the most important forthcoming event.
Its main goal, known as “proto-danksharding,” is to make Ethereum more scalable.
It will be put into effect during the Deneb-Cancun upgrade, which is anticipated to take place in the final third or first quarter of 2023. With the launch of EIP 4844, it is anticipated that the expenses associated with using Ethereum Layer-2 solutions would decrease drastically, expected to be at least 10 times cheaper and maybe even up to 100 times lower.
The deployment of proto-danksharding, according to IntoTheBlock, is expected to boost economic activity on Layer 2 solutions as well as the Ethereum network as a whole.
