EIP-4844 Unveiled: Paving the Way for Proto-Danksharding in Ethereum

5 min readOct 30, 2023

🚀 The world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is ever-evolving, with innovations continually reshaping the landscape. One such innovation that has taken the Ethereum community by storm is Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844, lovingly referred to as EIP-4844 or Proto-Danksharding. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore EIP-4844 and its potential to revolutionize the Ethereum network, answering all your burning questions. Buckle up, because we’re embarking on an exciting journey through the Ethereum galaxy!

**EIP-4844 Unveiled: Paving the Way for Proto-Danksharding in Ethereum**

Chapter 1: What is EIP-4844?

🔍 EIP-4844, commonly known as Proto-Danksharding, stands as a beacon of hope for Ethereum. This Ethereum Improvement Proposal is poised to address two pressing issues that have long plagued the network: high transaction fees and limited transaction throughput. The central idea behind EIP-4844 is to introduce a novel transaction type capable of handling data “blobs.” This upgrade serves as a crucial stepping stone towards achieving full Danksharding in the future. Let’s delve deeper into what makes EIP-4844 a game-changer.

Chapter 2: Ethereum’s Journey to EIP-4844

🛣️ To fully grasp the significance of EIP-4844, we must first understand Ethereum’s journey leading up to this point. Ethereum underwent a monumental transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in 2022. This transition set the stage for Ethereum to enhance its scalability and overall performance. Ethereum’s architecture evolved through several upgrades, culminating in the Paris upgrade, also known as “The Merge,” in September 2020. “The Merge” separated the execution client from consensus clients, a pivotal change to enable the network’s growth.

But the journey towards scalability didn’t end with the shift to PoS. The next ambitious phase involves implementing “sharding.” Sharding is the key to Ethereum’s ability to scale while maintaining its commitment to decentralization and security.

Chapter 3: The Basics of EIP-4844

📦 EIP-4844 aims to introduce a significant part of the framework and logic essential for successfully deploying full Danksharding. Danksharding is a specific sharding approach coined by Dankrad Feist. While EIP-4844 won’t implement sharding itself, it plays a vital role in enhancing the scalability of layer-2 rollup solutions without waiting for full sharding.

Chapter 4: Mechanics of EIP-4844

🔧 At its core, EIP-4844 introduces a new transaction type that includes a data field called a “blob.” These blobs, which can be thought of as opaque byte strings, can reach a size of approximately 125 KB. They are secured using KZG, a novel cryptographic commitment scheme. This ensures data availability and alleviates the network’s burden from ever-expanding block sizes and unsustainable transaction gas costs.

These blob-carrying transactions offer layer-2 (L2) solutions a more efficient and cost-effective way of retrieving and querying data compared to traditional call-data methods. Importantly, blobs are stored exclusively in the consensus layer, primarily within Beacon nodes. This segregation from the execution layer (EVM) creates a separate fee market independent of the traditional gas market used to pay for transactions.

Chapter 5: Benefits of EIP-4844

💰 EIP-4844 represents a substantial leap forward for Ethereum, offering several key benefits:

Lower Transaction Costs: EIP-4844 aims to drastically reduce gas fees, making Ethereum transactions more affordable, especially for those engaged with L2 solutions.
Enhanced Scalability: The introduction of blobs paves the way for Ethereum to scale its transaction throughput significantly, essential for Ethereum’s quest to onboard the first billion users.
Improved User Experience: Lower fees and increased scalability translate into a better user experience, attracting a broader audience to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Despite being in the proposal stage, EIP-4844 holds immense promise for Ethereum, with the potential to make it more accessible, efficient, and attractive for users and developers.

Chapter 6: What is Sharding?

🧩 Sharding is a revolutionary concept in blockchain technology, with particular significance in the Ethereum ecosystem. It aims to strike a balance between decentralization, security, and scalability, addressing one of the most critical challenges in blockchain networks. Sharding divides the network into smaller groups or “shards” to process transactions in parallel, effectively increasing the network’s capacity.

Chapter 7: Sharding Benefits Beyond Ethereum

🌐 Sharding isn’t exclusive to Ethereum; it has the potential to transform the entire blockchain space. As blockchains handle a larger number of transactions at lower costs, they become more appealing for various applications, including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), supply chain management, and more.

Chapter 8: Proto-Danksharding Explained

🚀 Proto-Danksharding is an integral part of Ethereum’s ongoing evolution, serving as a crucial step in achieving a highly scalable and cost-effective blockchain. This intermediate solution, represented by EIP-4844, focuses on reducing the cost of transactions, enabling the Ethereum network to handle over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS). It’s the brainchild of two visionary creators, Protolambda and Dankrad Feist.

Chapter 9: Danksharding: Ethereum’s Leap into Scalability

🌟 Danksharding builds upon the concepts introduced in Proto-Danksharding to create an ecosystem where rollups can efficiently store their transaction data. By expanding data blobs from one to 64 in full Danksharding, Ethereum opens the door to supporting numerous rollups with ease. This means that millions of transactions per second are no longer a dream but a tangible reality in the world of blockchain.

Chapter 10: EIP-4844 Blob Transactions

📂 Blob transactions are a groundbreaking concept in Ethereum’s journey towards scalability. These transactions are not your typical blockchain interactions; they serve as a novel approach to handling data. Unlike regular transactions, blob transactions don’t carry out direct computations on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). They serve as data reservoirs that can be efficiently stored on the consensus layer of the Ethereum network. This innovative approach improves cost-effectiveness and scalability, making Ethereum more accessible to users.

Chapter 11: EIP-4844 Timeline for Implementation

📅 Ethereum’s journey towards sharding involves a two-step process, with EIP-4844 serving as a transitional upgrade to prepare the network for full sharding. The timeline for EIP-4844 implementation is crucial. While the full realization of Danksharding is a few years away, EIP-4844 is making rapid progress, with client prototypes being tested and prepared for production. The upgrade is expected to go live before the end of 2023, heralding a brighter, more inclusive future for the world of blockchain.

Conclusion: The Bright Future of Ethereum

🚪 As we conclude our exploration of EIP-4844 and its journey, we can’t help but be excited about the future of Ethereum. This groundbreaking proposal has the potential to lower transaction costs, enhance scalability, and improve the overall user experience. It’s a testament to Ethereum’s commitment to innovation and its continuous evolution to meet the demands of a growing global network. With the implementation of EIP-4844 on the horizon, Ethereum’s path to a brighter, more inclusive future in the world of blockchain is well underway. It’s an exciting time for Web3 development, and the possibilities are endless. With the right tools and resources, you can be part of this revolutionary journey.