Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844)
An Ethereum upgrade (EIP-4844) that introduced cheaper, temporary 'blob' data space for rollups, as a stepping stone toward full Danksharding.
Proto-Danksharding, implemented via Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844, introduced a new transaction type carrying "blobs" — large chunks of data that rollups (see Kaavon's dedicated Layer 2 guides) use to post their transaction data back to Ethereum for data availability (see Kaavon's "Data Availability" glossary definition), without that data competing for space in Ethereum's regular, more expensive execution gas market. Blobs are pruned from most nodes after roughly 18 days, since they only need to be available long enough for anyone to verify and challenge rollup activity, not stored permanently.
The "proto" in the name reflects that this is an intermediate step toward full Danksharding (see Kaavon's "Danksharding" glossary definition), which aims to scale blob capacity much further by distributing the job of storing and verifying blob data across many nodes rather than requiring every node to hold it all. In practice, proto-danksharding was the single biggest driver of lower rollup transaction fees following its activation, since posting data as blobs costs a small fraction of what posting the same data as regular calldata did previously.
Examples
- After proto-danksharding activated, many rollups saw their per-transaction fees drop sharply because blob space is priced separately from, and far cheaper than, regular Ethereum execution gas.
- Blob data posted under proto-danksharding is temporary by design — it's pruned after a set retention window rather than being stored on Ethereum forever.