Danksharding and Proto-Danksharding: How Ethereum Achieves True Scalability

Why Does Ethereum Need Danksharding?

Ethereum faces a fundamental challenge: in the current network architecture, each node must verify and store all transactions. Imagine a blockchain network with 1,000 nodes—if every node processes all data, the network throughput will be limited by the slowest node. This is why Ethereum researchers like Dankcredit Faust proposed sharding solutions.

Danksharding is not just an upgrade to traditional sharding techniques; it is a core pillar of Ethereum’s long-term scalability strategy. Its core idea is simple: divide the network into multiple independent shards that operate separately, rather than requiring each validator to process all transactions.

Innovative Design of Danksharding

Unlike traditional sharding methods, Danksharding introduces a unified block producer model. Traditional approaches require multiple producers distributed across different shards, whereas Danksharding relies on a single block creator. This may seem like a simplification, but it actually addresses a key issue in distributed systems: coordination efficiency.

Specifically, this design greatly simplifies transaction processing between shards, creating a more efficient scaling path for Ethereum. Each shard still operates independently, but by adopting a unified transaction market fee model, the overall system’s costs become more transparent and predictable.

How Sharding Works in Practice

Let’s understand how sharding reduces network load with a concrete example. Suppose there are 1,000 validator nodes. Without sharding, each node must verify and store all transaction data. With sharding, these 1,000 nodes are divided into several groups, each responsible for a specific range of accounts.

For example, transactions involving accounts A-E are handled by one shard, while transactions involving accounts F-J are handled by another shard. The benefits are clear: the load on each shard decreases significantly, data processing speeds up, and the total network throughput increases accordingly.

In Ethereum 2.0’s plan, the network will be divided into 64 shards. Each shard will independently process transactions and execute smart contracts within its range. While implementations of sharding differ among various blockchain projects, the core principle remains consistent: dividing the network to improve scalability and efficiency.

Proto-Danksharding: Stepping Stone or Ultimate Solution?

In the Ethereum Cancun upgrade, Proto-Danksharding introduced via EIP-4844 is like a prelude to Danksharding. It is more conservative in design but equally important.

Let’s compare the two:

Differences in Scalability Goals

Danksharding aims to turn Ethereum into a truly large-scale, scalable network, while Proto-Danksharding is an intermediate step focused on reducing rollup costs.

Performance

Danksharding promises to handle over 100,000 transactions per second, representing a truly large-scale throughput suitable for mainstream applications. Proto-Danksharding is more conservative, expected to reach 100-10,000 transactions per second, but this already marks significant progress over the current state.

Implementation Difficulty

Danksharding requires multi-layered upgrades to the Ethereum protocol, making it a long-term project. Proto-Danksharding is relatively easier, mainly by introducing blob transaction types to provide cheaper data storage for rollups.

Data Management Approach

The fundamental difference lies in data storage. Proto-Danksharding allocates a dedicated, cheaper data space for rollups via blob mechanisms, but data is still validated by main chain validators. Danksharding plans to establish a completely independent data management space, with each shard having its own data layer.

Current Progress and Future Roadmap

Proto-Danksharding has already entered the prototype validation phase in the Ethereum Cancun upgrade. The launch of EIP-4844 marks a step closer to a complete Danksharding solution. This intermediate solution immediately reduces costs for Layer 2 networks (such as Optimism and Arbitrum), validating the feasibility of the overall design.

Full Danksharding is still under development, but Proto-Danksharding has demonstrated that this path is viable. It can be said that Proto-Danksharding is not just a transitional solution; it also paves the way for the final Danksharding, laying the necessary infrastructure and community consensus.