Ethereum Rolls Out Proto-Danksharding, Steps Towards Dramatic Scaling Upgrade

Ethereum's scaling strategy has undergone significant changes in recent years, moving away from splitting the network into separate execution shard chains and focusing on Layer 2 rollups instead. Two key components of this strategy are proto-danksharding and danksharding.

Proto-danksharding, introduced through Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844 (EIP-4844) in the Dencun upgrade on March 13, 2024, allows for temporary data objects called blobs to be used by rollups, providing a cheaper way to publish transaction data. The blob system separates rollup data from normal Ethereum execution and uses a separate fee market, allowing demand from Layer 2 networks to affect blob prices without putting pressure on the normal transaction fee market.

The goal of proto-danksharding is not to make Ethereum's Layer 1 process every transaction directly but to act as a secure settlement and data-availability layer while Layer 2 networks handle most transaction execution. The introduction of blobs has significantly reduced the cost of data availability compared to permanent calldata.

Danksharding, on the other hand, is the broader long-term architecture aimed at dramatically increasing the amount of rollup data Ethereum can support. Despite its name, it differs from the older shard-chain plan and focuses primarily on data sharding. Danksharding allows for the distribution of responsibility among nodes to check rollup data, enabling total data capacity to grow without requiring continuous upgrades to more powerful hardware.