cryptonews.com
Ethereum’s highly anticipated Dencun upgrade is slated to hit the zkEVM testnet in April. Polygon Labs Developer Relations Engineer, Jarrod Watts, believes this upgrade could greatly benefit Polygon zkEVM and similar layer-2 solutions.
He suggested that the proposals laid out in EIP-4844 will benefit Ethereum users and positively impact Polygon and the broader zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) ecosystem.
Ethereum Prepares For Dencun Upgrade
The upcoming Dencun upgrade will vastly enhance layer-2 solutions that utilize rollup technology, such as Optimism and Arbitrum.
Of particular importance is the implementation of EIP-4844, which introduces “blobs” – essentially efficient data storage channels – to further reduce layer-2 transaction costs.
EIP-4844 is coming to Ethereum tomorrow.
What does this mean for Polygon chains?
Here’s what’s going to happen for Polygon enjoyoors:
1/ It’s coming to zkEVM in May
While 4844 goes live on Ethereum tomorrow, it will be coming to Polygon zkEVM testnet in April, and is…
— Jarrod Watts (@jarrodWattsDev) March 13, 2024
While Polygon is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), it functions as a sidechain rather than a true layer-2 rollup solution. As a result, Dencun’s impact on Polygon may be less pronounced.
Polygon zkEVM, however, does leverage both zero-knowledge proofs (for improved privacy) and rollups. This means it can potentially benefit from the Dencun upgrade.
Watts, an engineer working on the project, notes that roughly 80% of zkEVM fees come from call data. By switching to the more efficient “blob” storage post-Dencun, Polygon zkEVM looks to drastically reduce these fees.
Dencun Coming To Polygon zkEVM In April
Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade will bring benefits to various layer-2 platforms. These platforms will be able to offer lower transaction fees and higher throughput to their users.
Polygon zkEVM plans to integrate EIP-4844 proposals, with testing beginning on the testnet in April. The Feijoa upgrade will bring these changes to the mainnet approximately a month later.
In parallel to these scalability efforts, Polygon is also working on Polygon 2.0. A core part of this upgrade will be converting their current native token, MATIC, to POL.
This token swap intends to unify the entire Polygon ecosystem, serving as a medium of exchange and governance.