Steven Goldfeder, CEO of Offchain Labs, the primary developer behind Arbitrum, spoke last week at the ETHDenver conference. (Danny Nelson)

Ethereum Fees Set to Drop for Arbitrum, Polygon, Starknet, Base. But How Much?

Summary

Ethereum's Dencun upgrade, set for March 13, will introduce EIP-4844, or "proto-danksharding," which will significantly reduce costs for layer-2 blockchains by introducing data blobs. The reduction in costs is expected to lower fees for users, but the exact impact remains uncertain. Leading layer-2 teams predict that prices should decrease due to increased data availability, but the extent of the reduction is difficult to predict. The upgrade will benefit zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups and optimistic rollups differently. The reduction in costs could lead to increased usage and a stable equilibrium in fees. Coinbase's Base layer-2 network anticipates transaction costs to drop by 90-95%, aiming for "sub-cent" transaction costs.