EIP-4844
EIP-4844, also known as proto-danksharding, introduces a new transaction type to Ethereum, enabling cheaper data storage for rollups by introducing 'blobs'.
EIP-4844, also known as Proto-Danksharding, is a significant upgrade to the Ethereum protocol designed to drastically reduce transaction fees for Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions, particularly rollups. It achieves this by introducing a new transaction type that carries data in 'blobs' (Binary Large Objects). Unlike traditional L1 transactions where data is included in the main transaction calldata, blob data is ephemeral and stored separately within the consensus layer. This separation allows for a more efficient and scalable data availability solution. Blobs have their own distinct fee market, which is expected to be significantly cheaper than the calldata market. Furthermore, blobs are designed to be pruned from the main chain's state after a short period (estimated around 18 days), reducing the state bloat burden on L1 nodes. This proto-danksharding approach lays the groundwork for full danksharding by separating data availability from execution, enabling rollups to post their transaction data more cheaply and thereby offer lower fees to end-users. The ultimate goal is to make Ethereum mainnet capable of handling a much higher throughput of transactions by offloading execution to L2s and providing them with cost-effective data availability.
graph LR
Center["EIP-4844"]:::main
Pre_cryptography["cryptography"]:::pre --> Center
click Pre_cryptography "/terms/cryptography"
Rel_blob_transaction["blob-transaction"]:::related -.-> Center
click Rel_blob_transaction "/terms/blob-transaction"
Rel_ethereum["ethereum"]:::related -.-> Center
click Rel_ethereum "/terms/ethereum"
Rel_layer_2["layer-2"]:::related -.-> Center
click Rel_layer_2 "/terms/layer-2"
classDef main fill:#7c3aed,stroke:#8b5cf6,stroke-width:2px,color:white,font-weight:bold,rx:5,ry:5;
classDef pre fill:#0f172a,stroke:#3b82f6,color:#94a3b8,rx:5,ry:5;
classDef child fill:#0f172a,stroke:#10b981,color:#94a3b8,rx:5,ry:5;
classDef related fill:#0f172a,stroke:#8b5cf6,stroke-dasharray: 5 5,color:#94a3b8,rx:5,ry:5;
linkStyle default stroke:#4b5563,stroke-width:2px;
🧒 Explain Like I'm 5
It's like adding a special, cheaper mailbox just for L2 services to send their messages, so they don't have to pay as much to use the main [Ethereum](/en/terms/ethereum) post office.
🤓 Expert Deep Dive
EIP-4844 introduces a new transaction format and data structure, 'blobs', to Ethereum's consensus layer, fundamentally altering data availability for rollups. Blobs are distinct from traditional calldata, residing in a separate, albeit linked, data structure within blocks. This separation enables a specialized fee market for blob data, decoupled from the main transaction execution fee market, which is crucial for scaling rollups. The ephemeral nature of blobs (pruned after a period) addresses state bloat concerns inherent in full sharding by limiting the long-term storage burden on L1 nodes. EIP-4844 is a precursor to full danksharding, implementing the 'data availability' sharding concept without the complexity of full execution sharding. The design involves KZG commitments for data integrity verification, allowing L1 validators to efficiently check blob data validity without downloading all blob data themselves. This significantly reduces the cost of data posting for rollups, directly impacting their transaction fee competitiveness and overall scalability.