Ethereum protocol is getting ready for another upgrade to improve the scalability and efficiency of the network. EIP-4844(EIP stands for Ethereum Improvement Proposal) aims to implement a new transaction type that accepts blobs(binary large objects) of data, as well as other requirements to achieve full danksharding in the future. In the end, this upgrade will allow for more complex and data-intensive applications to be built on Ethereum and lower the fees by increasing the overall scalability.

This new type of transaction known as blob-carrying transactions is similar to regular transactions but carries additional pieces of information attached to blocks, increasing the capacity of blob-carrying blocks to carry more data.

Why Blobs?

Blobs are large amounts of data that are stored on the consensus layer of the Ethereum blockchain for a temporary period of time. They are not accessible by the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which is responsible for executing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. The consensus layer’s purpose is to provide a highly secure real-time bulletin board for other protocols’ longer-term storage. Also, blobspace is cheaper than blockspace.

Road to Full Danksharding

Full danksharding, which Ethereum intends to implement, will aid in lowering transaction costs and increasing throughput. EIP-4844 will serve as a transition upgrade, as stated in the proposal "This EIP is a stop-gap solution by implementing the transaction format that would be used in sharding, but not actually sharding those transactions. Instead, the data from this transaction format is simply part of the beacon chain and is fully downloaded by all consensus nodes."

Wen Mainnet?

EIP-4844 is currently in development and is expected to be implemented in the second half of 2023. This improvement proposal is quite complex since it also contains requirements for the full-danksharding, so there may be delays in the implementation.