Ethereum developers are preparing for the second network upgrade of 2025 that will launch on the blockchain mainnet on Wednesday.
Fusaka, a combination of the names Fulu + Osaka, consists of two updates that occur on Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers at the same time.
The goal of the upgrade is to allow Ethereum to handle the high transaction throughput of Layer 2 chains that use the blockchain as a base layer. Fusaka consists of 12 code changes, also known as “Ethereum Improvement Proposals” (EIP) that will make the Layer 2 experience faster and cheaper.
The biggest change in Fusaka is known as PeerDAS, which allows validators to verify only segments of data instead of entire “blobs”, alleviating bandwidth demands and reducing expenses for both validators and Layer 2 networks. Currently, Layer 2s send thousands of transactions to Ethereum via “blobs”, where validators currently on the Ethereum blockchain have to download all transaction data from the blob to verify it is accurate, which creates bottlenecks. With this improvement, those validators will only need to verify a fraction of a blob, which will speed up the process and reduce the transaction fees involved.
Fusaka not only improves the layer 2 experience, but has improvements that also affect Ethereum itself, although they are much smaller. The changes include the maximum size of a single transaction, intended to improve security, as well as some new code intended to make smart contracts more efficient.
Institutions are also paying more and more attention to this update. Earlier this month, Fidelity Digital Assets released a report that said Fusaka is a decisive shift toward a more strategically aligned and economically coherent roadmap.
Read more: Ethereum developers block Fusaka upgrade for December 3 with PeerDAS launch
