Following a successful Shapella upgrade on April 12, Ethereum developers are advancing their preparations for the next ETH upgrade, Deneb, or “Cancun-Deneb.”
The upgrade will implement new changes across the execution layer (EL) and the consensus layer (CL). The upgrade for the execution layer is “Cancun,” while that for the consensus layer is “Deneb.”
For simplicity’s sake, the consensus layer implements the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, while the execution layer executes the transactions and validates the state in the block header.
The most significant change expected in Ethereum’s Cancun-Deneb upgrade will be Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844, also known as “proto-danksharding,” which aims to augment Ethereum’s scalability.
Blobs used by Layer-2 rollups for cost reduction are the new transaction type that will be introduced through EIP 4844.
EIPs in Deneb upgrade
Christine Kim shares highlights of the most recent ETH ACDC call. This week, developers discussed progress on the Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to be included in the Deneb upgrade.
The deliberations regard EIP 4788 and EIP 6987, which would be included in the Deneb upgrade, and SSZ considerations for EIP 4844.
Yesterday, Ethereum client teams gathered for ACDC Call #108.
They talking about prepping EIP 4788 and EIP 6987 for inclusion in Deneb, SSZ considerations for EIP 4844, diversifying MEV relay client dependencies through PR 317, and more.
Full writeup: https://t.co/OyxDTYW1D9
— Christine Kim (@christine_dkim) May 5, 2023
EIP 4788, “Exposing Beacon Chain Roots in the EVM,” has been agreed upon by developers for inclusion in the Deneb upgrade. EIP 4788 would enable proofs of CL state on the EL for trustless verification by smart contracts.
Ethereum Foundation Researcher Danny Ryan said that CL client teams would start to build the code changes for EIP 4788 into Deneb for formal testing.
EIP 6987, “Forbid Slashed Validators from Being Elected as Block Proposers,” was also a likely candidate for inclusion in Deneb, and code changes associated with EIP 6987 would soon be added to Deneb specifications for testing.
Earlier, developers discussed including PR 3175 in the Deneb upgrade. PR 3175, which is in the process of being formatted into an EIP, prevents slashed validators from being selected as block proposers.
Responding to a question on the likely timing of the Deneb upgrade, Christine Kim says, “One of the developers put out a rough estimate of Q3, but until the scope of Deneb is finalized, it will be difficult to estimate.”
