Ethereum’s top upgrades dropping this year

Ethereum has finally released tentative release dates for its upgrade schedule. The network is set to undertake its new mainnet hard fork, Dencun, in Q1.

If everything goes well, the Ethereum team is considering the following dates for forking the public testnets:

• Goerli – January 17
• Sepolia – January 30
• Holesky – February 7

According to developers, Goerli will not be added to the testing regimen after the hard fork. The network is slated for depreciation, and it is time for the Electra/Prague upgrade. Whether Ethereum will focus on structuring the upgrade around smaller improvements or a large core feature is yet to be decided.

The start of the year has been excellent for ETH, which has gained 4.62% in the last 24 hours. It is trading at $2,381.64, and the latest Ethereum forecast sees it hitting $5,000 in the coming 12 months.

As for the scheduled upgrades, Ethereum is set to start with EIP – 4844 (Proto-Danksharding). The upgrade will result in reduced data availability costs throughout L2 chains.

Similarly, the network will release ERC-4337 with its extension, ERC-6900. ERC-4337 was released in March 2023 and will be pivotal in the upcoming changes for Ethereum end users.

EIP-1153 is also scheduled for 2024, as the upgrade will help smart contracts use transient storage. The storage will be reset after every transaction is executed, reducing gas costs related to data storage.

Another upgrade Ethereum is eyeing is EIP-4788. The upgrade aims to add a Beacon Block Root to every EVM block. The change will benefit liquid staking protocols like Lido with operational efficiency and enhanced security.

MCOPY opcode, or EIP-5656, will optimize the data copying process in memory during smart contract execution. Quicker memory operations result in quick execution while offering more tools to developers.

With EIP-6780, Ethereum will address the SELFDESTRUCT opcode. Currently, the opcode allows smart contracts to delete themselves. The network will restrict the smart contracts from self-destructing for better management of the state size.

Ethereum will not restrict itself from additional upgrades during 2024. However, these are the most notable and impactful ones that can refine the network this year.