🫧 EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) EIP-4844
An Ethereum upgrade, nicknamed proto-danksharding, that gave Layer 2 rollups a cheap, temporary data lane called blobs. It shipped in the March 2024 Dencun upgrade and made Layer 2 transactions far cheaper.
📮 The simple version — a cheap temporary parcel
Layer 2 rollups bundle hundreds of transactions and post the batched data back to Ethereum so it can be checked. The old way was expensive: rollups wrote their data into calldata, which Ethereum stores forever — like mailing a permanent certified letter that gets filed away for good. EIP-4844 added a cheaper option: a blob. Think of it as a temporary parcel the network checks once and then shreds after about 18 days. That window is long enough to settle any disputes, but the data isn't kept forever, so it stays cheap.
🫧 What exactly is a blob?
| Feature | What it means |
|---|---|
| 📦 Size | A large data package, about 128 KB each, attached alongside a block |
| 🙈 Not EVM-readable | The Ethereum Virtual Machine can't read blob contents — it only verifies the data was there |
| ⏳ Temporary | Stored on the consensus layer and auto-deleted after roughly 18 days |
| 💸 Separate fee market | Blobs are priced with their own "blob gas," independent of regular Ethereum gas |
📊 Because blob gas is separate, a surge in blob demand doesn't directly spike normal mainnet transaction fees.
📉 Why beginners feel it — cheaper Layer 2 fees
EIP-4844 went live on March 13, 2024 as the headline change of the Dencun upgrade. Soon after, fees on Layer 2 rollups dropped dramatically — figures of 80-90% or more are commonly cited. On networks like Arbitrum and Optimism, per-transaction costs fell from roughly $0.25-$2 to about $0.001-$0.01. So if swapping or sending tokens on those networks suddenly felt cheap in 2024, this upgrade is the reason — even if you never heard its name.
🚀 A stepping stone to full danksharding
The "proto" in proto-danksharding is a hint: this is a first step. EIP-4844 is the foundation for full danksharding, a long-term plan to scale Ethereum toward 100,000+ transactions per second. The blobs and pricing it introduced are what that future build sits on. The Pectra upgrade (May 7, 2025, via EIP-7691) already built on it by doubling the target blobs per block (target 3→6, max 6→9), pushing Layer 2 costs even lower.
🚨 Things beginners should know
- 🪙 It helped L2, not L1 — Ethereum mainnet gas can still be expensive; the big savings landed on rollups
- 🗑️ Blobs are temporary — Blob data isn't stored forever like normal transactions; it's pruned after about 18 days by design
- 📊 Fee drops are approximate — The exact percentage varies by source and network, so treat any single figure as a rough guide
- 🧱 It's a stepping stone — Full danksharding is still a future goal, not something that already shipped
❓ FAQ
- Did EIP-4844 make Ethereum mainnet gas fees cheap?
- No. It mainly slashed costs for Layer 2 rollups like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, not for Ethereum mainnet (Layer 1) itself. Mainnet fees are driven by regular gas, while blobs have their own separate fee market.
- What is a blob, and is it stored forever?
- A blob is a large data package, about 128 KB, attached alongside a block but not readable by the Ethereum Virtual Machine. It is deliberately temporary: it lives on the consensus layer and is automatically deleted after roughly 18 days, long enough for rollups to prove their data was available.
- Why do beginners care about EIP-4844?
- It is the reason swapping or sending tokens on networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base suddenly became cheap in 2024. After the Dencun upgrade, per-transaction fees on those rollups commonly fell from roughly $0.25-$2 to about $0.001-$0.01.