TL;DR

• The Dencun upgrade will reduce fees on Ethereum layer 2’s by up to 75%, and is a major step in improving the Ethereum user experience (next step: account abstraction).

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Ethereum is getting a big ol’ upgrade today!

The ‘Dencun’ upgrade aims to reduce the transaction fees on Ethereum layer 2’s (L2’s) by up to 75%.

(L2’s are kind of like third party/use-case specific apps that are built on top of Ethereum, the same way you have third party apps on your smart phone).

“Ok, cheaper fees — is that it?”

Kinda, but also not. This is one step in a broader plan.

Right now, L2 fees are in what we’d call the “I guess that’s ok” realm (the $0.10 - $0.50 range). What Dencun aims to do is bring these fees into the “I really don’t care” range (think: $0.02 - $0.12).

It’s a step in the right direction, but there’s still more on the Ethereum core developer’s ‘to-do’ list…

Specifically, ‘account abstraction’ — which is just a more succinct way of saying:

“The process of making the user experience not suck, and getting the broader functionality to feel more like a polished Web2 banking app.”

I.e. Allow users to set up automated transfers, buy subscriptions, and set up joint accounts on Ethereum — just like they would with a traditional bank acc.

And the Dencun upgrade brings us one step closer to that reality!