Vitalik Buterin announced that the Proto-danksharding upgrade has officially entered the testing phase, marking not just a technical upgrade but a fundamental transformation of the Ethereum ecosystem. It will elevate Ethereum's processing capacity from the current 15 transactions per second to 3000 transactions per second, a 200-fold performance improvement that will completely change the boundaries of possibilities for blockchain applications.
Proto-danksharding is based on cutting-edge cryptographic technologies such as data availability sampling and KZG commitments. Unlike traditional sharding schemes, it does not split the network into multiple independent shards, but instead achieves scalability by enhancing data availability. This approach maintains the unity and security of the network while significantly increasing processing capacity. Proto-danksharding introduces a new transaction type called blob transactions, which can carry large amounts of data but are not executed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine; instead, they are stored in the network as proof of data availability.
The explosive growth of the DeFi ecosystem provides strong demand support for this technological upgrade. The total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance protocols has surpassed $80 billion, setting a historical high. For every additional $1 billion in TVL, approximately 23,000 ETH is needed for collateral, gas fees, and liquidity provision, a demand that even exceeds Ethereum's daily output. This reversal of supply and demand dynamics is driving ETH's transformation from a purely digital currency to a productive asset.
Uniswap's cumulative trading volume has surpassed $2 trillion, with daily trading volumes often exceeding those of traditional centralized exchanges. Uniswap V4 introduces customizable liquidity pools and a dynamic fee mechanism, an innovation that not only improves capital efficiency but also creates more revenue opportunities for liquidity providers. The total borrowing scale of lending protocols such as Compound and Aave has exceeded $20 billion, and through algorithmic automatic interest rate adjustments, these protocols achieve higher efficiency and transparency than traditional banks.
The vigorous development of the Layer 2 ecosystem further amplifies Ethereum's value effect. Arbitrum's daily transaction volume has surpassed 120 million, exceeding the processing capacity of the Ethereum mainnet. The Optimism superchain ecosystem has attracted over 200 DApps, forming a massive application ecosystem. These Layer 2 solutions not only alleviate congestion pressure on the mainnet but, more importantly, they all require ETH as a settlement currency. The adoption of enterprise-level applications is also a significant force driving Ethereum's development, with JPM Coin from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs' digital asset platform, and Microsoft's blockchain services all choosing Ethereum as their underlying technology platform.
