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Author: Ye Huiwen, Wall Street News
Ethereum is executing a critical network upgrade called “Fusaka” today, another important milestone in its continued expansion roadmap.This upgrade aims to further reduce the transaction costs of the Layer-2 network and consolidate Ethereum’s core position as a global efficient settlement layer by significantly increasing data capacity and optimizing protocol efficiency.
According to the plan, the Fusaka upgrade is activated at block height 13,164,544.This is a new step on the road to expansion for Ethereum following the Dencun and Pectra upgrades.Kenny Lee, head of Goldman Sachs’ crypto business, noted that Fusaka represents the next stage of Ethereum’s scalability roadmap, with the goal of driving the network’s evolution into a settlement layer with both global reach and cost-effectiveness.
The core change in this upgrade is the introduction of “PeerDAS” (Peer Data Availability Sampling) technology.This feature is designed to theoretically increase the data capacity of the Layer-2 network by 8 times, thereby achieving higher transaction throughput and is expected to significantly reduce transaction fees for Layer-2 users.
In addition, the Fusaka upgrade also includes the introduction of the “Blob Parameters Only” (BPO) forking mechanism,Make future network capacity improvements more flexible;At the same time, it optimizes the performance of Layer-1 main network through functions such as storage expiration and block control, andImprove wallet functionality and user experience.Together, these changes constitute a structural leap forward in Ethereum’s scalability, sustainability, and operability.
From Dencun to Fusaka: Focus on expansion and infrastructure optimization
The Fusaka upgrade is actually the simultaneous activation of the consensus layer “Fulu” upgrade and the execution layer “Osaka” upgrade.According to the final plan confirmed by the Ethereum Foundation, the Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) included in the upgrade mainly focus on three major areas:
Improve Layer-1 efficiency: Including storage expiration (EIP-7642) and transaction gas limit (EIP-7825), etc., aiming to maintain the efficiency of node operation as network usage increases.
Expand Layer-2 data capacity: The core is PeerDAS (EIP-7594), supplemented by Blob parameter update (EIP-7892) and Blob cost optimization (EIP-7918).
Improve user experience and developer tools: Covers deterministic proposer look-ahead (EIP-7917) and precompilation of secp256r1 curve support (EIP-7951) to enhance wallet functionality and application development.
These three major directions are completely consistent with the strategic priorities established by the Ethereum Foundation in April 2025 (expanding the Ethereum main network, expanding Blobs, and improving user experience). This article will focus on its improvement of Layer-2 data capacity and optimization of the fee mechanism.
Core mission: “L2-centered” expansion path
In order to understand why Ethereum focuses on scaling through Layer-2, one needs to review its design philosophy.
In the “blockchain trilemma” (that is, decentralization, security and scalability cannot be achieved at the same time), Ethereum’s early design prioritized the decentralization and security of its base layer (Layer-1).This has led to the bottleneck of high transaction fees and slow confirmation times in Layer-1 as the demand for decentralized applications grows.
To solve this problem, Ethereum adopted a “Rollup-centric” roadmap.This strategy transfers most of the transaction processing tasks to the Layer-2 network. Layer-2 executes transactions off-chain and then releases the compressed data back to Ethereum Layer-1 for final settlement and security.
This modular approach allows Ethereum to achieve scalability without sacrificing its core decentralization principles.However, this also raises a new “data availability” problem – that is, how to prove to the entire network that the published compressed data is valid without requiring every node to download all the data.
PeerDAS: The key to achieving an 8x increase in data capacity
PeerDAS, the most influential feature in the Fusaka upgrade, was created to solve the above data availability issues.
Before Fusaka, although the Dencun upgrade introduced “Blobs” as a cost-effective way to store Layer-2 data, each Ethereum full node still needed to download the complete Blob data, which limited the bandwidth and throughput upper limit of the network.
PeerDAS fundamentally changes this model.After the upgrade, the network will split the blob data into small pieces and disperse them to different nodes.Each node only needs to download and verify a small portion of the total data (approximately 1/8), ensuring the availability and integrity of the entire data set through cryptographic methods.This mechanism significantly reduces the resource requirements of a single node, thereby bringing a theoretical increase of about 8 times of data capacity to the network.PeerDAS laid the foundation for subsequent Blob expansion and is the key driving force for the reduction of Layer-2 transaction costs.
BPO fork: increase the Blob limit more flexibly
As Layer-2 transaction activity continues to grow (Figure 2), its demand for blob space is also rising.
According to Coinmetrics data, the number of daily blobs is on the rise.However, under the current mechanism, increasing the number of blobs per block requires a complex “hard fork”. Such major upgrades are difficult to coordinate and infrequent.
To solve this bottleneck, Fusaka introduced the “Blob Parameter Only (BPO) Forking” mechanism.This is a dedicated lightweight fork that is only used to update blob-related parameters (such as the maximum number of blobs per block).Because of their small scope and controllable impact, development teams can deploy such upgrades more frequently and more safely, allowing networks to incrementally increase data capacity without having to wait for major upgrades that include additional capabilities.According to the Ethereum Foundation, the BPO fork will be pre-programmed to double the number of blobs in stages over several weeks until it reaches a maximum.
Stabilizing the fee market: introducing a Blob floor price mechanism
After the Dencun upgrade, Layer-2 faces two independent fees for publishing data to Ethereum: execution gas and blob gas.When Blob demand is low, its fee may drop to near zero, but Layer-2 still has to pay execution gas which can be considerable.This “price signaling failure” can lead to pricing inefficiencies and market instability.
To solve this problem, Fusaka introduced a “floor price” mechanism for Blobs through EIP-7918.This floor price is not a fixed value, but is dynamically linked to the execution gas fee.
When market-driven blob fees fall below this floor, the fee adjustment algorithm prevents them from falling further.This move is designed to ensure that blob fees always reflect their economic value, keep the fee market sensitive to network congestion, and provide a more stable and predictable pricing environment for Layer-2.
Market Impact and Potential Risks
The Fusaka upgrade is expected to have a profound impact on the market.The increase in data capacity brought about by the bifurcation of PeerDAS and BPO is expected to further reduce Layer-2 operating costs.At the same time, the bottom price mechanism of EIP-7918 ensures that Blob space will not be used unreasonably and cheaply.The economic sustainability of the network is maintained.This may intensify competition among Layer-2 networks, and the focus of competition may shift from transaction costs to user experience, ecological cooperation, and liquidity depth.
However, this upgrade also comes with some risks and considerations:
execution risk: Any major hard fork carries the risk of client coordination failure or vulnerabilities, which could lead to temporary network instability.
Mainnet fees have limited impact: The direct benefits of the upgrade are mainly reflected in Layer-2. The Gas fee of the Ethereum main network may not drop immediately in the short term.
Hardware requirements: Although PeerDAS is optimized for efficiency, higher blob targets may still increase validator bandwidth requirements over time.
ecological adaptation delay: Layer-2 and dApp developers will need time to take full advantage of the new architecture.
