Dencun Update Significantly Reduces Fees in Layer 2 Networks

Following the activation of the Dencun hard fork on the Ethereum mainnet, gas fees in Layer 2 networks implementing EIP-4844 have decreased significantly.

The key component of the update is the Proto-Danksharding function, designed to scale the blockchain by creating a new type of transaction for large binary data arrays (BLOB).

The main goal of Dencun was to reduce fees for L2 solutions, particularly those based on Rollup technology.

According to user Marcov’s dashboard on Dune, gas fees in the Base protocol dropped from $0.7 (as of March 13 before the hard fork launch) to $0.0024 at the time of writing.

after 2 years of hard work, blobs are now live on @base

before: $0.31
after: $0.00 (but actually $0.0005)

wallets need to update to handle these cost reductions! pic.twitter.com/solIX9D4HM

— Jesse Pollak (jesse.xyz) ?️ (@jessepollak) March 14, 2024

In Optimism, transaction costs fell from $0.66 to $0.0055, and in zkSync from $0.32 to $0.097.

?We can’t believe our eyes.

We’re seeing <$0.001 transactions right now.

— Optimism (@Optimism) March 14, 2024

The lowest fees were recorded in Zora, at $0.0009.

Fees in Arbitrum changed the least, as developers have yet to activate the update. On March 14, the project team plans to implement the ArbOS upgrade, which will add support for BLOB transactions.

Blobs are finally on Ethereum, here’s an update on Arbitrum support!

1⃣ Tomorrow, all Arbitrum rollup chains can start to see lower fees as a result of Dencun x ArbOS Atlas upgrade.

2⃣ March 18th there will be additional fee reductions for Arbitrum One, as per ArbOS Atlas.

— Arbitrum (?,?) (@arbitrum) March 13, 2024

StarkNet also saw a reduction in fees. Argent, one of the largest wallet providers in the L2 network, noted that the swap fee in the protocol dropped to $0.04 compared to more than $6.8 a few days before Dencun.

$0.04 for an in-app swap on Argent X ?

a couple of days ago, it was $6.82.

congratulations @Starknet, low fees are back! pic.twitter.com/K500eNDh42

— Argent — Starknet Wallet (@argentHQ) March 13, 2024

Meanwhile, on the Ethereum mainnet, gas fees remained at previous levels — around $4 at 45 Gwei.

Future Plans

In a Warpcast post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced the achievement of “basic rollup scaling.” This is one of the stages of the second phase of The Surge blockchain roadmap.

“The next milestones are likely to be Verkle trees and the expiration of [transaction] history storage,” Buterin noted.

According to the stated plan, the further goal is the implementation of “full rollup scaling” and achieving 100,000 transactions per second.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong emphasized that reducing gas costs in L2 networks “opens up many avenues for cryptocurrency applications.”

This is huge

Reducing transaction fees and confirmation times on Layer 2 will open up so many more use cases for crypto.

We’re finally getting scalability. https://t.co/X7K3TzkMno

— Brian Armstrong ?️ (@brian_armstrong) March 14, 2024

Other ecosystems have also decided to follow Ethereum’s example. BNB Chain introduced a major upgrade BEP-336, modeled after EIP-4844.

The update aims to optimize data storage and processing in the blockchain, significantly reducing transaction costs and enhancing network performance.

As reported by Grayscale experts, the launch of Dencun will help Ethereum “mature” by increasing scalability.