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Author: BESSIE LIU, BLOCKWORKS; Compilation: Deng Tong, Bit Chain Vision Realm
Dencun hard fork is expected to be launched in March 2024, and many Ethereum improvement proposals (EIP) will be launched online.
Among them, EIP-4844 (also known as Proto-Danksharding) has always received special attention.
In today’s Ethereum ecosystem, the Layer 2 extension solution (such as Rollups) plays a vital role in improving transaction throughput and reducing costs.These Rollups store the temporary copy of the interim copy of the execution -layer nodes and historical records of the “inheritance” Ethereum’s security.This process can verify the accuracy of transactions.
However, the current method of achieving this goal (by writing data into “CALLDATA”) is costly, and the cost per mega is about $ 1,000.Because it involves a lot of costs, this pricing model brings major challenges to Layer 2 solutions, especially during the period of high demand.
The EIP-4844 will introduce Blob transaction as an alternative to callData.These BLOB transactions are a temporary data storage mechanism, which aims to meet the data availability requirements of the Ethereum Rollup solution.Blob is essentially a big data packet that can be handled and stored more effectively than the current method.
OFFChain Labs co -founder Edward Felten explained in an interview that 4844 will provide lower -level data availability services, but it can still meet the needs of Rollups.
Felten said: “It cannot be used on the execution layer of Ethereum, and it is only reserved for 18 days from Ethereum nodes.” “This is enough for rollup.”
Felten pointed out that there are two ways to use data.One of them is to prove the result of the occurrence of rollup.
During this period, it is important to ensure that the data itself is available for everyone, so that different participants can participate in ensuring that the transaction is accurately recorded.
“The first 18 days were long enough for any realistic proof mechanism, and it could complete its work,” he said.
Felten said that after the 18 -day certificate period, users on the specific rollup may still care about its Rollup data, but this has become the responsibility of Rollup provided and tracking information.
Will BLOB make transactions cheaper?
The design of BLOB pricing makes the price increase when the amount is high. When the amount of use is low, the price will decrease.
Felten pointed out that due to the two unknown factors, it is difficult to accurately estimate how the cost of the Rollup solution published by 4844 will be accurate.
“If the transaction becomes cheaper, one thing that may happen is that users will make more transactions,”Felten said.”We really don’t know how much the traffic of Layer 2 will increase, and how much transactions will increase the transaction to be cheaper.”
This means,If the transaction price becomes cheaper, more demand for data release and BLOB space may be generated, which will increase the price of BLOB in turn.
Another unknown factor is how Rollup itself will use these blobs.
Felten said:“Rollup is trying to optimize costs and ultimate delays for users. We believe that if the price of Blob is low, we will release a smaller BLOB frequently.” “If the price of Blob has fallen sharply, this will cause Rollup to use more blobs,This often brings up pressure on prices.
Felten pointed out that for Rollup, it is important to accurately consider how long it should wait before publishing the data to Ethereum.
At present, on Arbitrum with CALLDATA, the network has accumulated about 100-120 kb before publishing data to Ethereum.But Felten explained that unlike CallData, in CALLDATA, Layer 2 must pay by bytes. For blob, rollup must buy the entire BLOB, whether use it or not.
“This means that weighing is a bit different, because if you only have half a Blob data and publish it, then you buy the entire BLOB, but only half of them,” Felten said.
“If the waiting time is longer, you will publish more data in Blob to save costs, but on the other hand, your user transaction will take longer to reach Ethereum, so they will reach the final result later.”Felten added.
Data release strategy
A potential method to reduce the cost of publishing data is to be released through sharing.This is where two different Rollups may choose to merge their data and publish it to the main network of Ethereum.
OFFChain Labs researcher Akaki Mamageishvili pointedIf Rollups wants to share data to save costs, one problem they must solve is to determine cost allocation.
“Fast rollup or more busy ROLLUP will save less delay costs, not too busy Rollup or slower Rollup, which will save more delay costs, so cost allocation should not be proportional,” Mamageishvili said.
He added that Rollup needs to determine which other Layer 2 “cooperate” with, and pointed out that larger Rollup may not need to cooperate with others, and smaller Rollup may need to find a smaller Rollup for other people to share the cost to share the cost.And improve delay.
Data availability option
Ethereum itself is not the only blockchain that can release data.Data availability solutions such as Celestia and Eigenlayer also hope to solve the problem of data release through data usability sampling.
Each layer 2 solution can accurately select the location they want to publish the data.As far as Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova are concerned, DAO voting is currently underway to ensure that the Arbitrum chain can immediately use EIP-4844 after the Dencun is upgraded.
“In my opinion, this is the decision made between the cost and trust in each chain, because you trust the data availability system you are using. Each chain can make your own decision. I don’t think this is a knife cut.of.”
