The Ethereum development team has successfully deployed the Dencun update onto the mainnet, marking a significant milestone in the platform’s evolution. On March 13th, the update was implemented as planned, with the primary objective of enhancing scalability and reducing transaction fees across both the mainnet and layer-2 protocols. Tim Beiko, a member of the project team, officially confirmed the launch of the update.
Etherscan data indicates that the Ethereum mainnet has reached the epoch specified for the Dencun upgrade, aligning with the scheduled timeline. Shortly after the update went live, observable changes in transaction fees occurred, with the average fee settling around 56 gwei.
Anticipation surrounding the update’s launch contributed to a surge in the Ethereum (ETH) price, reaching a new high since December 2021 at $4,083. However, following the launch, ETH experienced a slight downturn, with the price currently standing at $3,993.
The implementation of Dencun addresses the longstanding issue of high transaction costs on the Ethereum network, potentially revitalizing on-chain activity, particularly within the DeFi sector. Developer Anton Cheng highlights that the reduced fees will also make rollups more accessible, further enhancing the competitiveness of ETH.
In addition to fee reductions, the Dencun update introduces several other enhancements, including proposals for enabling voluntary withdrawal from ETH staking, improvements in voting evaluation, validator joining limits, and enhancements to basic memory operations, among others.