The Fusaka upgrade for Ethereum has been activated on the Sepolia testnet, representing a crucial advancement in the network’s efforts to enhance scalability and performance.
This upgrade is the second phase in a three-step rollout according to Ethereum’s Fusaka roadmap, following the Holesky testnet activation on October 1. The focus of the Sepolia deployment is on stress testing the new data-availability system and increasing the block gas limit before developers launch the code on the final Hoodi testnet later this month.
The rollout of Fusaka introduces a variety of performance and consensus enhancements. The complete upgrade aims to elevate Ethereum’s block gas limit to 60 million, facilitating the processing of more transactions and complex smart contracts while testing if nodes can maintain stability under higher loads.
Gabriel Trintinalia, a protocol engineer at Consensys’ client Besu and a core developer involved in the upgrade, stated, “There was solid engineering work by the client teams to ensure that the current node setups, both in terms of hardware and networking, can reliably handle 60M gas blocks without risking networking instability,” in an interview with Cointelegraph.
As larger blocks necessitate nodes to process and store additional data, Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) is also under evaluation.
PeerDAS allows Ethereum validators to confirm transaction data by sampling small segments from various peers rather than downloading everything, which boosts speed and scalability while maintaining decentralization.
Paul Harris, another core developer for Fusaka and protocol engineer at Consensys’ Teku client, mentioned, “Validators no longer need to store all network data under PeerDAS, which significantly alleviates the burden on nodes.”
“Fusaka alters the way data availability works, enabling scaling far beyond what was previously possible with PeerDAS,” Harris remarked.
The Ethereum Foundation released the Fusaka testnet schedule on September 26, detailing the final steps preceding the network’s significant upgrade. Following this year’s Pectra update, the final trial on the Hoodi testnet is slated for October 28, with a mainnet launch anticipated in December.
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A brief history of Ethereum upgrades
Since its inception in July 2015, the Ethereum network has undergone several major upgrades aimed at enhancing scalability, security, and performance.
The most recent upgrade was the Pectra update, which went live on May 7, implementing three essential improvement proposals. The changes enabled externally owned accounts to act like smart contracts and pay gas fees using tokens other than ETH, along with raising the validator staking cap to 2,048 ETH from 32 ETH. This upgrade also expanded the number of data blobs permitted per block.
Prior to Pectra, the Dencun upgrade was launched on March 13, 2024, drastically cutting gas fees within the network. Within a year of the Dencun upgrade, average gas fees on Ethereum decreased by up to 95%.
One of the most notable Ethereum upgrades is The Merge, which was executed in September 2022, transitioning Ethereum from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake blockchain.
This upgrade marked the end of mining, introduced validators, and reduced energy consumption by up to 99%.
The Shanghai upgrade in April 2023 was another pivotal milestone in the network’s roadmap, as it enabled validators staking Ether (ETH) to withdraw for the first time, completing Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake.
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