How Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Could Lead to the Rise of Millions of Layer 3s

Base creator Jesse Pollak argues that much cheaper Layer 2 transactions, as well as other developments, will enable the creation of multitudes of specialized Layer 3s that are deeply connected to the onchain economy.

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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

EIP-4844 proposal

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.

HOST

Laura Shin

Laura Shin is a crypto journalist, host of the Unchained podcast, and author of “The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze” (Public Affairs, 2022). Formerly a senior editor at Forbes, she was the first mainstream journalist to cover crypto full-time, and her podcasts and videos have had more than 15 million downloads and views. Shin has spoken about cryptocurrency at places such as TEDx San Francisco, the International Monetary Fund, Singularity University and the Oslo Freedom Forum.

She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors from Stanford University and has a master of arts from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She lives in New York City.