Full Danksharding and the End of Execution Shards

The rollup-centric roadmap replaced the original plan for execution shards. The core insight was that specialized L2s like Arbitrum and Optimism could scale execution more efficiently than a fragmented L1, allowing Ethereum to focus on its core competency: secure data availability.

Full Danksharding is the data layer. This upgrade transforms Ethereum into a high-throughput data availability engine for rollups. It provides the blob-carrying capacity that rollups need to post cheap, verifiable proofs, making L2s like zkSync and Base the primary user-facing execution environments.

The pivot validated modular architecture. By separating data availability (Ethereum) from execution (L2s) and settlement (some L2s), the design unlocked specialized scaling. This is the foundational principle behind Celestia and EigenDA, which compete directly with Ethereum's data layer.

Evidence: Post-EIP-4844, average L2 transaction fees on Arbitrum and Optimism dropped by over 90%, proving the demand for cheap blobs. The network now processes over 100 rollup blobs per day, a precursor to Full Danksharding's multi-blob capacity.

Ethereum's original sharding roadmap fragmented execution, creating a cross-shard communication nightmare. This introduced latency and complexity that broke atomic composability, the core value proposition of a unified L1.

Full Danksharding pivots to data availability, treating rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism as the native execution layer. The L1 provides a secure, high-throughput data layer, offloading execution complexity to specialized environments.

The complexity trap was economic. Building secure, synchronous bridges between dozens of execution shards demanded more engineering effort than scaling via a modular data layer. This validated the rollup-centric thesis proposed years earlier.

Evidence: Ethereum's core developers formally deprecated execution sharding in 2022. The roadmap now focuses entirely on Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844) and full Danksharding to scale data for rollups.

Full Danksharding eliminates execution shards. The original sharding roadmap proposed multiple parallel chains. The Danksharding model, pioneered by Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), pivots to a single high-throughput execution layer fed by blob-carrying transactions.

The core innovation is data availability sampling (DAS). Light clients and nodes verify data availability by randomly sampling small chunks of the blob data. This cryptographic trick enables secure scaling without downloading the entire dataset, a principle also used by Celestia and Avail.

Validators are not responsible for blob execution. They only attest to the availability of the data. This separation creates a specialized data layer where rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism post their compressed transaction data, paying fees in blob gas.

The system scales to ~1.3 MB per slot. With 64 blobs of ~128 KB each, the data bandwidth increases by ~60x versus EIP-4844's initial ~0.75 MB target. This capacity supports hundreds of rollups operating concurrently.

Abandoning execution shards was a strategic retreat from a flawed design. The original sharding plan required complex cross-shard communication and consensus, creating a coordination nightmare for developers and users. This complexity directly benefits competing L1s like Solana and Avalanche, which offer simpler, monolithic scaling.

Danksharding's data availability focus is a bet on modular specialization. It outsources execution to rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism, which innovate faster. This creates a competitive execution layer market, but fragments liquidity and user experience across dozens of chains.

The monolithic counter-argument is valid. A single, globally synchronous state, as championed by Solana and Monad, offers superior composability and atomicity. Ethereum's rollup-centric model introduces bridging risks and latency, making complex DeFi interactions across Arbitrum and Base cumbersome.

Evidence: The developer mindshare metric is the ultimate test. While Ethereum's L2 ecosystem thrives, the sustained growth of Solana's developer activity and user retention post-FTX shows the monolithic model's enduring appeal for certain applications.