Ethereum's Next 'Fusaka' Upgrade Could Cut Layer-2 and Validator Costs
Ethereum's Next Upgrade, Dubbed 'Fusaka', Could Reduce Layer-2 Costs for Validators
Currently, the developers have agreed to implement one technical change – “PeerDAS”, aimed at improving data accessibility.
Margot Nijkerk | Edited by Sam Kessler Updated May 12, 2025, 3:37 PM Published May 12, 2025, 3:37 PM
What you should know:
- Ethereum's core developers are already focusing their efforts on the blockchain's next major upgrade: Fusaka.
- Fusaka is currently scheduled to be released in late 2025. However, Ethereum developers are known for their tendency to delay updates.
- At this point, developers have agreed to include one technical change in Fusaka: an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) that targets data availability called “PeerDAS.”
Following the successful deployment of Pectra last week, Ethereum's biggest upgrade in over a year, the network's leading developers have already begun working on the chain's next major upgrade: Fusaka.
Pectra, the largest change to Ethereum's code since the 2022 merger, introduced important modifications aimed at making staking easier for organizations, improving wallet accessibility, and increasing transaction efficiency.
Developers have already begun planning for Fusaka, the network's next upgrade, and have now agreed to implement an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) called “PeerDAS” that could help the network handle larger “blocks” of transaction data.
Blobs, which were introduced during the Dencun upgrade, are dedicated spaces for large amounts of transaction-related data. They are stored off-chain, reducing the load on the Ethereum blockchain and reducing gas fees. Blobs are essential to the emerging Layer 2 ecosystem built on top of Ethereum, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Coinbase's Base, which process transactions faster and at a lower cost than the main chain.
PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) will allow validators to download partial data from blobs instead of full blobs to verify whether the data has been sent to the network.
In theory, PeerDAS could reduce transaction costs on the second layer and benefit institutions running validators on the Ethereum blockchain.
“PeerDAS is extremely important as we look to support layer-2 scaling,” Paritosh Jayanti, a DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, told CoinDesk on Telegram. “PeerDAS allows us to significantly increase the blob limit.”
Fusaka is scheduled to launch in late 2025 and will eventually include a suite of additional upgrades beyond PeerDAS. However, Ethereum developers are known for delays in their upgrades.
Pectra was originally scheduled to be released in late 2024, but was pushed back to Q1 2025. After several failed tests, the developers have delayed the update again until May.
Ethereum developers have been criticized for not implementing protocol changes quickly enough over the past year. As the network’s token price has lagged in recent months and developers have moved to competing ecosystems, the network’s community has debated whether its unofficial leader, the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation, is to blame.
Read more: Ethereum developers scheduled Pectra update for May 7
