Can the Fusaka upgrade open a new chapter for Ethereum scalability?

Author: Shenchao TechFlow

Original title: The easiest-to-understand Fusaka Science Popularization on the Internet: A comprehensive analysis of Ethereum upgrades and their ecological impact

Ethereum spot ETF recorded net inflows again after a weak performance last week, and market sentiment is gradually improving. Ethereum's next upgrade is also on the way.

Looking back at history, almost every technological upgrade has become a catalyst for price, and the improved on-chain performance after the upgrade is directly reflected in the valuation expectations of ETH.

This time, the Fusaka upgrade coming on December 3rd will be broader in scope and deeper in impact.

It is not just an efficiency optimization, but a significant upgrade to the entire Ethereum mainnet: Gas costs, L1 throughput, L2 capacity, node thresholds… almost every core metric that determines the vitality of the network has made a huge leap forward.

If past upgrades made Ethereum “cheaper” or “faster”, then the significance of Fusaka lies in making Ethereum more scalable and sustainable.

As the functionalities of protocols become increasingly complex, the requirements for the underlying blockchain's capacity are also rising. In the current landscape where AI Agents and high-frequency interactive DApps are emerging, this upgrade will directly impact Ethereum's position in the next wave of Web3 applications.

So, what exactly has changed? If you want to quickly understand, here is a visual summary of all the core changes in the Fusaka upgrade:

Next, we will popularize the core logic of the Fusaka upgrade from both technical and practical impact perspectives.

This is certainly not a technical report meant only for developers; we will explain it in a way that even technical novices can easily understand, guiding you to quickly grasp the key changes behind this upgrade. If you are not interested in the operating mechanism, you can also skip to the second half and see how this upgrade will ultimately affect the Ethereum ecosystem and the experience of every user.

Fusuka Core Upgrade: Further Expansion

The core purpose of the following technological improvements is singular: to achieve further scalability while ensuring security and decentralization.

PeerDAS: From Full Storage to Sampling Verification

Blob is a new type of data block for Ethereum that stores large amounts of on-chain data, packaging Layer 2 transactions into a “big box,” similar to how a courier company delivers a large number of packages at once, efficiently uploading them on-chain without occupying permanent storage space.

Before the upgrade of Fusaka, each node had to verify data by storing every package in full, just like a courier company. The result was overloaded warehouses, strained bandwidth, and a significant rise in node costs.

PeerDAS has proposed a more elegant solution: no longer saving the entire warehouse, but rather using full network sharding sampling.

1. Storage: Each blob is divided into 8 parts, and each node only randomly stores 1/8 of it, while the remaining parts are distributed and stored by other nodes.
2. Verification: Through random sampling verification, the error probability is as low as 10²⁰–10²⁴ to one. Nodes can quickly retrieve missing segments using erasure codes, easily reconstructing the complete data.

It sounds simple, but it is a significant improvement in the field of data availability. This actually means:

• Node burden reduced by 8 times;
• The network bandwidth pressure has dropped sharply;
• Storage shifts from centralized to decentralized, further enhancing security.

Blob Pricing Mechanism

In the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum introduced blobs, allowing Rollups to upload data at a lower cost. Its fees are dynamically adjusted by the system based on demand. However, some limitations have emerged in reality:

• When demand drops sharply, costs nearly fall to zero, and cannot reflect the true usage of resources.
• When demand surges, blob fees will spike instantly, causing Rollup costs to soar and block creation delays.

Severe fluctuations actually stem from the protocol's inability to perceive the complete price structure, adjusting prices solely based on short-term “consumption volume.”

The EIP-7918 that Fusaka is upgrading is aimed at solving the problem of fluctuating fees. The core idea is to stop the Blob fees from fluctuating infinitely and instead set a reasonable price range for them.

It adds a layer of minimum reserve price to the pricing system:

• When the price falls below the execution cost threshold, the algorithm will automatically apply the brakes to prevent costs from being driven down to nearly zero;
• Limit the price adjustment speed during high load to prevent costs from skyrocketing.

Another EIP-7892 makes Ethereum friendlier to Layer 2. It allows the network to dynamically fine-tune the capacity, quantity, and size of blobs like adjusting a knob. There is no need to initiate a complete hard fork for parameter adjustments as before the upgrade.

When L2 requires higher throughput or lower latency, the mainnet can respond instantly to match these demands, thereby significantly enhancing the system's flexibility and scalability.

Security and Usability

Security

Scaling allows Ethereum to handle more transactions, but it also increases the potential attack surface. A DoS attack, or Denial of Service attack, can lead to network congestion, transaction delays, and even node paralysis, significantly degrading the user experience and security of the entire chain.

Ethereum originally had a strong design against DoS attacks; these improvements are not fixes for defects but an additional layer of protection on the existing security framework.

In simple terms, if Ethereum is a highway, then the four EIPs of Fusaka are like simultaneously regulating the speed (EIP-7823), weight (EIP-7825), tolls (EIP-7883), and length (EIP-7934) of vehicles on the highway, restricting computational load, single transaction volume, operational costs, and block size from multiple dimensions, allowing for increased traffic flow while ensuring all vehicles pass quickly, thus maintaining Ethereum's robustness, smoothness, and resistance to attacks while scaling.

Usability

For users, let's use the highway analogy again: in simple terms, pre-confirmation means being able to reserve a parking space at the highway entrance in advance, with the exit time locked before the vehicle enters the station, and the block confirmation is almost instantaneous.

For developers: Fusaka optimizes the execution environment: enhances contract operation efficiency, reduces the cost of complex operations, and supports hardware keys, fingerprints, and mobile device logins, simplifying account management and user interaction.

Actual Impact

Let's put technology aside for a moment; how significant are the changes in user experience and ecosystem? Just look at the picture to understand:

Due to space limitations, I have selected some topics that everyone might be more concerned about and will elaborate on them:

Staking will become safer and more stable

In the past, becoming an Ethereum validator was more like a professional sport - the high hardware threshold, complex operation and maintenance processes, and data synchronization times that could take days all deterred ordinary users. The Fusaka upgrade is making all of this truly enter the “civilian era.”

With the launch of the PeerDAS mechanism, nodes only need to sample, download, and store about 1/8 of the data fragments when validating the availability of blob data, significantly reducing bandwidth and storage costs. What is the result?

Before the Fusaka upgrade, according to the official blog of Ethereum.org, 32 ETH validators could run nodes stably on devices with only 8 GB of memory. The upcoming Fusaka upgrade will further reduce the bandwidth and storage requirements for validators. Let's take a data-driven look at this:

• On the Fusaka testnet, the bandwidth required to become a validator node is approximately 25 Mb/s.
• Compared to the domestic network environment, in the fourth quarter of 2024, the average download speed of fixed broadband in our country has reached 99.14 Mb/s.

In other words, most household devices can also run Ethereum validation nodes and enjoy native staking rewards.

Fusaka makes home-grade nodes a reality - no longer just for professional operators, more household devices can join the network verification, jointly ensuring the security of Ethereum, while directly sharing staking rewards.

This is a true strengthening of decentralization. The lowering of operating thresholds means more independent validators joining, and more validators bring a more stable, more resilient, and more decentralized Ethereum.

From the investor's perspective, this also optimizes the staking risk structure: when validation nodes are no longer concentrated among a few large operators, the chain can maintain stability under high load; volatility decreases and the yield curve becomes smoother.

High-Frequency Interaction: Fusaka Opens the Era of “Real-Time Ethereum”

In the Web3 world, DeFi, payments, and AI Agents share a common bottleneck: they all require a network that responds in real time.

In the past, Ethereum was secure but not smooth enough. The rhythm of one block every 12 seconds is sufficient for large transactions; however, for continuous instruction calls from AI Agents and millisecond-level settlements for on-chain payments, this rhythm is obviously too slow.

Fusaka changed everything.

Through PeerDAS, gas limit expansion, and reduced L2 costs, Ethereum has become more suitable for hosting high-frequency interactive applications.

We may soon witness a more instantaneous and explosive Ethereum ecosystem.

Here is a detailed discussion about DeFi:

Fusaka not only improves throughput but also directly optimizes the operational experience of DeFi. Lending, synthetic assets, and high-frequency trading protocols can all “run faster and cost less.”

Here are a few examples of common protocols:

• Aave: Loan liquidation window shortened, liquidation fees decreased. The reason is that L2 upload costs have reduced, allowing liquidation transactions to be packaged faster, thereby reducing slippage and delay risks.
• Synthetix: The settlement time for synthetic assets has been reduced, and the costs of contract interactions have decreased. The increase in Blob capacity allows large contract calls to no longer be restricted, making capital operations more efficient.
• High-frequency DEX: The depth of the liquidity pool has increased, and large trades no longer result in significant slippage. The driving force behind this is the expansion of the block Gas limit and lower L2 upload costs, which significantly enhance liquidity utilization.

Ending

The potential brought by the Fusaka upgrade is enormous; it could become the most eco-driven milestone upgrade for Ethereum since the Merge and Dencun.

From an 8-fold increase in on-chain data capacity, a sharp drop in transaction fees, to several times the increase in throughput, and a lower barrier for validators—these changes combined will unleash vitality in the Ethereum ecosystem in this new phase after the Fusaka upgrade.

We should all observe carefully: After Fusaka, will Ethereum usher in a brand new growth cycle?