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Ethereum’s long-awaited Dencun upgrade finally went live this week, and many L2s immediately saw their transaction fees fall dramatically, as was the intention. Among them was the Coinbase-incubated Base, which was created by Jesse Pollak. Pollak joined Unchained to discuss the impact Dencun was having on Base; how he thinks Layer 1s and Layer 2s will start to differ from one another and eventually spawn a multitude of specialized Layer 3s; his response to criticisms of the increasing use of Layer 2s, what he’s focusing on now, and why he supports using the word “onchain” over “crypto” or “web3.”
Show highlights:
- The problem that Dencun is trying to solve
- The benefits of blobs and blobspace
- How Dencun has already reduced Base’s fees, but also increased its transactions
- How Jesse thinks Layer 1s and Layer 2s will start to become differentiated from each other
- The rise of Layer 3s
- How Jesse addresses criticisms of fragmentation and centralization arising from the increasing use of Layer 2s
- Why Jesse is particularly excited about two features of the Dencun upgrade—transient storage and increased composability between L1s and L2s
- What Jesse and the Base team are focusing on now
- Why Jesse thinks that “onchain” is a better word to describe the industry than “crypto” or “blockchain” or “web3”
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Guest |
Jesse Pollak, creator of Base at Coinbase
Previous appearances: The Chopping Block: All About That Base With Jesse Pollak
Links |
Recent coverage on Unchained of the Dencun Upgrade and Base:
Dencun Day One: Ethereum Layer 2 Networks See Drastic Drop in Transaction Fees
Ethereum Completes Milestone Dencun Upgrade, Which Should Substantially Reduce Fees
How Much Will the Dencun Upgrade Really Reduce Ethereum Layer 2 Fees By?
Why Base’s Creator Thinks Social Apps Will Be a ‘Huge Part’ of the Layer 2 Blockchain’s Success
CoinDesk: Debating Dencun: Will Ethereum's Big Update Help or Harm the Network?
Jesse’s tweets on Dencun
October 2022 | January 2024 | March 13, 2024
Blobs / Proto-danksharding
Blobs unleashed: Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade activates on mainnet
Base says it will support EIP-4844 from 'day 1' following Dencun upgrade
Ethereum stans are putting the Bee Movie on blobs for as little as $5
Superchain
Decentralizing Base with the OP Stack and Optimism
Base’s Commitment to Decentralization with the Superchain
Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC. Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz.
