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Cancun upgrade is implemented. How much has the gas of each chain dropped?

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This article compares the real gas change performance of the six mainstream Layer 2s: Arbitrum, Optimism, Starknet, zkSync, Blast, and Base.

Original title: "After the Cancun upgrade is completed, how much has the gas of each chain dropped?" 》

Original author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily

Yesterday evening at 9:55 Beijing time, the Ethereum beacon chain ( The time slot height (Slot) of Beacon has officially reached 8626176, which is also the scheduled position for Dencun upgrade, and the upgrade is officially activated.

Regarding the content and impact of Dencun upgrade, Odaily Planet Daily published a previous article "The Cancun upgrade is finally coming, which targets will it benefit? 》has been explained in detail. In short, the core content of the Dencun upgrade is EIP-4844. This upgrade aims to introduce a new transaction type "Blob transaction" to Ethereum by adding an additional block to the block on the Ethereum main network. The temporary data space Blob is specially used to process Layer 2 related transactions, thereby significantly reducing the transaction fee cost of Layer 2.

So, with the implementation of the upgrade, how much has the transaction cost of Layer 2 dropped?

Next, we will compare the six mainstream Layer 2 of Arbitrum, Optimism, Starknet, zkSync, Blast, and Base through real tests. The actual gas change performance.

It should be emphasized that the Dencun upgrade itself will only be executed on the Ethereum main network. Therefore, if Layer 2 wants to achieve the fee reduction effect, it needs to actively upgrade to adapt. It is equipped with a new "Blob transaction", and different Layer 2s have different time plans for adaptation and upgrade. All current Layer 2 fees have not been obvious for the time being, and users still need to wait for this situation.

As shown in the picture above, as part of Layer 2 has been completed With the adaptation of "Blob Transaction", the gas costs of the respective networks have dropped significantly.

In addition, compared to ZK Rollup, the cost reduction of Optimistic Rollup after adaptation seems to be more obvious, and Optimism, Base, etc. have almost been reduced to negligible levels—— Think about how 1 dollar can be clicked 100 times now...

As of now, Arbitrum is still the Layer 2 network with the smallest reduction in gas costs, but in view of The team has stated that it will further reduce the fee after the ArbOS Atlas upgrade on March 18, so we hope users will continue to be patient.

The last thing I want to talk about is the gas changes on the Ethereum main network. One of the major misunderstandings that many people have about the Dencun upgrade is that the upgrade will also reduce the gas fee of the Ethereum main network. This statement is obviously misunderstood, but it is not entirely unreasonable.

Because from the direct logic of Dencun upgrade (mainly EIP-4844), the core purpose of the upgrade is to use the newly added Blob data space to reduce The cost of Layer2 synchronizing data to Layer1 (Ethereum main network), thereby reducing the transaction costs of Layer2, is not directly related to the gas status of the Ethereum main network.

But indirectly, as the block space occupied by Layer 2 related transactions is released (actually transferred from calldate to Blob), other Ethereum owners The fee competition pressure faced by online exchanges will also be alleviated, so the Dencun upgrade will also reduce the transaction fee cost of the Ethereum main network to a certain extent.

However, since Layer 2 related transactions account for a relatively limited share of the total transaction volume of the Ethereum main network, the above changes will have a negative impact on the Ethereum main network. The gas impact is not that obvious.

In general, Layer 2 is still the biggest beneficiary of Dencun’s upgrade. With the significant reduction of on-chain gas, Layer 2's influence on projects with "high concurrency requirements" and "low unit value" attributes such as games and social networking will be greatly increased. Can this trigger a new round of Layer 2 The wave of application growth will be our focus in the next stage.