‘Dirt Cheap L2s?’: EIP-4844 Common Misconception Debunked by Bitcoiner

Bitcoin developer Eric Wall analyzed potential limitations of post-Dencun L2s

With Ethereum’s Cancun-Deneb upgrade successfully activated, EIP-4844 introduced blobs, improved data logistics and managed to reduce fees on L2s. However, its effects should not be overestimated, Eric Wall says.

EIP-4844 will not solve throughput and fees issues completely, Eric Wall says

The narrative of “dirt cheap” transactional fees on Ethereum (ETH) L2s post Dencun activation is a misconception. Despite the major advancement, the design of sequencers still allows for fees spikes in some situations, as explained by cryptocurrency tech veteran Eric Wall.

Even given the maximum capacity of blobspace, L2 rollups after Dencun would only scale to 100-1,000 transactions per second (TPS).

At the same time, even if a single rollup consumes all the blobspace and is running at maximum theoretical capacity, that does not necessarily mean that the fees will always be low, Wall says.

To illustrate his point of view, he recalled some potential “stress-tests” for Ethereum-based networks and L1/L2 sequencers, including extreme buying pressure:

Sequencers still have to sequence with limited throughput => fees 

Fees statistics from the first days with EIP-4844 activated confirmed such estimations as significant fees spikes were observed on OP Stack-based chains.

Here are cheapest Ethereum L2s right now

After months of preparation, Ethereum (ETH) Dencun upgrade kicked off on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet on March 13, paving the path for optimized data usage for EVM L2s.

As demonstrated by L2Fees tracker, on all dominant L2s — Optimism, Arbitrum, Starknet and zkSync Era — prices of transfer and cross-asset swaps dropped below $0.01 in equivalent.

At the same time, for some networks, including the likes of Loopring, zkSync Lite and Boba Network, fees remained almost untouched by Dencun-triggered changes.

About the author