On March 27, the use of block space in Ethereum for BLOB transactions reached 100% due to blockchain “inscriptions” akin to Bitcoin Ordinals.
As widely predicted, it looks like March 27, 2024 will be remembered as the day that the ‘blobs are free EIP-4844 launch discount’ party came to a close – courtesy of Blob Inscriptions. 100% expected. And yet still breathtaking to observe. Follow along @ https://t.co/Ctj3QWHYgh pic.twitter.com/ZdCO0dcbte
— Matt Cutler?? (@mcutler) March 27, 2024
This option became available following the activation of the Dencun update on the mainnet on March 13. A key component of the upgrade, EIP-4844, enabled L2 networks to significantly reduce fees through BLOB transactions.
However, binary data arrays began to be actively used for “inscriptions.” According to a dashboard on Dune, nearly 40% of the total BLOBs are used for this purpose.
As noted by The Block, this occurs despite the “ephemeral” nature of inscriptions — data is stored for 18 days. They can remain further only in full archival nodes.
According to Ethernow, at the time of writing, 166 BLOBs are pending. The limit of six objects per block is reached in about 40% of cases, while a similar proportion are not included at all.
On average, the network maintains a target of three arrays per block.
In the L2 protocol Base on March 27, the fee for placing a BLOB reached $337. The figure adjusted to around $12. Meanwhile, the regular transaction fee in the protocol is about $0.01.
Back in December, the launch of an Ordinals analogue on the TON blockchain led to a network failure.