Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade: An Important Step in Scalability Evolution

The Fusaka upgrade plan for Ethereum is set to launch on the mainnet in the third or fourth quarter of 2025, marking the largest hard fork bundled upgrade since The Merge. The Fusaka upgrade includes 12 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP), covering multiple technical dimensions such as data availability, node lightweighting, and EVM optimization, aimed at further enhancing Ethereum's scalability and performance.

The core of the Fusaka upgrade is the introduction of the "Data Availability Sampling ( DAS )" mechanism. This will allow validators to complete verification by downloading only a portion of the Blob data, without the need to store all the data. This move can significantly reduce the network burden, improve verification efficiency, and lay the foundation for large-scale transaction processing capabilities of the Layer 2 network ( L2).

Another important improvement is the plan to expand the Blob capacity from the current 6 to 12-24, potentially reaching 72 per block in the future. Theoretically, if DAS is fully implemented, the maximum capacity could even reach 512 Blobs per block. This means that the processing capacity of L2 is expected to leap to tens of thousands of transactions per second, significantly enhancing the availability and cost efficiency of high-frequency interaction scenarios such as DApps, DeFi, social networks, and games.

Fusaka also plans to introduce Verkle trees to achieve a lightweight state and node structure. This not only significantly compresses the size of state proofs, making light clients and stateless verification possible, but also helps promote the decentralization and mobile adoption of Ethereum.

At the virtual machine level, Fusaka focuses on the flexibility of EVM and performance bottlenecks. The new EIP will support more efficient bit operations, accelerate cryptographic computations, enhance compatibility with Web2 and enterprise architectures, and expand the contract size limit to support the deployment of more complex logic.

To ensure that scaling does not affect network stability, Fusaka has introduced block size limits and adjusted Blob usage fees to prevent resource abuse and dynamically match supply and demand fluctuations.

The Fusaka upgrade is not just a technical improvement; it represents a key step for Ethereum in transitioning to mainstream commercial applications and ordinary users. For Rollup developers, it means lower data writing costs and more flexible interaction space; for wallet and infrastructure providers, it allows for more complex interactions and heavier loads; for end users, it will bring a lower-cost, faster response on-chain operation experience; for enterprises and compliant users, EVM expansion and state proof simplification will make on-chain interactions easier to integrate with regulatory systems and large-scale deployments.

However, we still need to maintain a cautiously optimistic attitude. Fusaka is currently undergoing testing on several development networks, and the final launch time may change. If all goes well, Fusaka is expected to complete its mainnet deployment by the end of 2025, becoming another important milestone in Ethereum's history after The Merge.

Overall, the Fusaka upgrade is not only limited to enhancing on-chain scalability but also represents an important step for Ethereum towards mainstream applications, promising to provide a solid technical foundation for the next stage of the Rollup ecosystem, enterprise-level decentralized applications, and on-chain user experience. The watershed moment for Ethereum's move towards large-scale mainstream applications may be gradually approaching.