Ethereum Enhances Scalability with Second Blob Parameter-Only Hard Fork

Ethereum Enhances Scalability with Second Blob Parameter-Only Hard Fork

Ethereum has made significant strides in improving its throughput this week by activating its second Blob Parameter-Only (BPO) hard fork. This upgrade is specifically designed to enhance data capacity and facilitate rollup-based scaling, all while setting the stage for additional changes planned for 2026.

Key Takeaways:

The second BPO hard fork increased the blob limits, which helps support greater rollup throughput without overloading the mainnet.
Developers see the higher blob target as a crucial indicator of ongoing network performance and overall node health.
Future enhancements in scalability will be pursued through gas limit increases and the upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork in 2026.

The upgrade was officially launched on Wednesday at 1:01:11 UTC and raised the network’s blob limit from 15 to 21.

Blobs are temporary data containers that help rollups bundle transactions more effectively. This alleviates the demand on Ethereum’s main layer and allows layer-2 networks to process a significant amount of transactions at a lower cost.

Ethereum Increases Blob Target for Sustainable Scaling

Along with the increased cap, the hard fork also raised the blob target from 10 to 14.

Developers consider the target to be a more critical metric, as it indicates the level Ethereum strives to maintain during normal operations.

Consistently operating near the 21-blob upper limit could put a strain on node bandwidth and storage, making this target vital for assessing network health.

Each blob can accommodate 128 kilobytes of data, meaning Ethereum can now process up to approximately 2.6 megabytes of blob data per block.

This added capacity permits rollups to consolidate more transactions simultaneously, enhancing efficiency without directly amplifying congestion on the mainnet.

Besides scaling layer-2 activities, blobs have also helped maintain base-layer fees.

Since the first BPO hard fork in December, Ethereum's transaction fees have demonstrated significantly reduced volatility, indicating less competition for block space as rollups transfer data away from the main chain.

Developers are already planning for further throughput enhancements. In a recent Ethereum All Core Developers meeting in mid-December, participants talked about increasing the network’s gas limit from 60 million to 80 million, now that the second BPO upgrade is operational.

This change would enable more transactions and smart contract operations per block, which could further lower fees during periods of high demand.

The focus will shift to the anticipated Glamsterdam hard fork later in 2026, which is expected to dramatically enhance scalability.

This upgrade would allow the gas limit to rise to 200 million and introduce “perfect parallel processing,” supported by Block Access Lists under Ethereum Improvement Proposal-7928.

Vitalik Buterin Claims Ethereum Has Overcome the Blockchain Trilemma

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently asserted that the network has successfully addressed the blockchain trilemma, achieving a milestone that has long been seen as elusive in the crypto community.

In a post on X, Buterin stated that the recent and upcoming upgrades have successfully aligned decentralization, security, and scalability through technology already in use.

Central to this assertion are two technical innovations: peer data availability sampling (PeerDAS) and zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machines (zkEVMs).

Additionally, Ethereum's staking dynamics underwent a significant shift this week, marked by a decrease in validator exits and an influx of new investments into long-term lockups. This indicates a notable change in the behavior of large ether holders in the market.

The queue for exiting validators dropped to zero ETH early Tuesday, a dramatic drop from its mid-September high of approximately 2.67 million ETH, where withdrawal wait times were prolonged for days.