Ethereum Devs Set December Date for Fusaka Upgrade
News Summary
Ethereum core developers have set the mainnet activation date for the Fusaka upgrade for December 3, 2025, advancing a timeline previously expected to extend into 2026. This decision follows testing on Devnet-5, which, despite revealing software bugs, led developers to agree on a two-step increase in blob capacity, first to 10/15 blobs per block, then to 14/21. The Devnet-5 tests also highlighted issues with the Prysm client struggling under high loads, and a bug in the ckzg library was confirmed as fixed. This accelerated timeline aims to provide rollups with more blob space to handle transactions and keep fees low, with capacity gradually raised to mitigate the risk of network overload.
Background
The Ethereum network is continuously striving to enhance its scalability and efficiency through a series of upgrades, addressing growing transaction demands and high transaction fees. The preceding Pectra upgrade, rolled out in May 2025, aimed to make the network easier to use, raise staking limits, and boost data capacity to reduce costs for rollups. While Pectra was touted as a turning point for Ethereum's roadmap, industry observers warned that scaling pressures would persist. Rollups, which are bundling and scaling solutions, require significantly more blob capacity to remain uncongested as usage grows. Blobs are temporary data packets on Ethereum that rollups use to post transaction data to the blockchain at lower costs, and are crucial for Layer 2 scaling solutions.
In-Depth AI Insights
What are the true drivers behind the accelerated Fusaka upgrade? Beyond the official narrative of