Polygon Developers Anticipate Fee Reductions with Ethereum’s Dencun Update

The upcoming Dencun update to the Ethereum mainnet is expected to alleviate the high cost of data availability for rollup networks. This view was expressed by Jordi Baylina, the technical lead of Polygon zkEVM, as reported by The Block.

The hard fork activation on the mainnet is expected on March 13. A key component of the update is EIP-4844, which includes the Proto-Danksharding option aimed at scaling. This solution is anticipated to reduce fees in second-layer networks.

The Polygon platform employs two scaling methods: the eponymous PoS sidechain and a rollup network based on zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology called Polygon zkEVM.

Baylina believes that the implementation of EIP-4844 will “triple the overall data capacity of Ethereum.” This will significantly aid rollups like zkEVM, Linea, Scroll, and zkSync in reducing gas costs.

According to him, the extent of savings will depend on various factors, but a reduction in data compression costs by 10-50 times is expected.

According to L2 Fees, fees in Polygon zkEVM are noticeably higher than those of competing rollups. For instance, transferring ETH through the protocol costs $0.88, whereas a similar transaction on zkSync Era costs $0.12.

Baylina also noted that the implementation of Dencun is simpler for L2 solutions based on Optimistic Rollups, such as Optimism and Arbitrum. ZKP project teams need to conduct certain technical preparations for the update. As part of these efforts, Polygon zkEVM developers implemented precompiled smart contracts for all cryptocurrency pairs during the February Etrog hard fork.

“A new proof system is needed to facilitate data compression,” stated Baylina, adding that work on the solution is progressing.

He assured that the team will complete all necessary components ahead of the Dencun activation.

Earlier in February, Ethereum developers successfully implemented the hard fork on the latest test network — Holesky.