The Dencun upgrade, billed as Ethereum's biggest since the merger, was triggered at Ethereum epoch 269,568, precisely at 13:55 UTC on March 13.

The main goal of this update is to revolutionize the way data is stored on the Ethereum blockchain, introducing a concept known as “proto-danksharding.” This innovative approach provides dedicated space for data storage, distinct from regular transactions, and is expected to operate at a lower cost.

One of the notable features of Dencun is its potential to significantly reduce transaction fees for layer 2 (L2) networks.

L2 networks, including Arbitrum and Polygon, will benefit from improved data availability, thereby reducing costs associated with transaction processing.

However, the implementation of Dencun is not without its challenges, as evidenced by the temporary pause in block production on the Blast Network.

Blast Network temporarily paused

Blast Network, a relatively new Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, temporarily stopped block production due to issues arising from the Dencun upgrade.

The Blast Mainnet has stopped producing blocks due to issues related to Ethereum's Dencun upgrade. Core engineering contributors are working on a fix. We'll share an update and post-mortem once the fix is ​​live (eta 30-60 min).

— Blast (@Blast_L2) March 13, 2024

Launched on February 29, 2024, Blast had amassed billions in crypto assets through its Ethereum bridge, attracting widespread attention in the crypto space.

The team behind Blast, including market minds Blur Ethereum NFT and programmer Pacman, responded quickly to the challenges posed by the Dencun update, with a dedicated effort to find and implement a solution.

Update: the issue has been resolved.