Imagine Ethereum as a highway.
At the beginning, the traffic was light, and it ran quite smoothly.

But as more and more people started using the blockchain,
this highway became increasingly congested,
—transaction fees skyrocketed, and speed slowed down,
just like being stuck in traffic during rush hour.

The Fusaka upgrade is a major renovation for this
highway:
widening lanes, adding toll booths,
optimizing traffic flow,
to make the entire system run faster,
cheaper, and smoother.

🚩Why is this upgrade needed?
Before Fusaka,
Ethereum has actually gone through several "renovations". For example:

The Merge in 2022:
replaced the energy-intensive "mining" model with a more environmentally friendly "staking" model,
just like replacing gasoline cars with electric cars.

The Shanghai upgrade in 2023:
allowed staked Ether to be freely withdrawn, no longer locked.

The Dencun upgrade in 2024:
introduced the concept of "Blob",
significantly reduced fees for Layer-2 networks.

But even with so many improvements,
Ethereum still faces three major issues:

High data storage pressure:
just like a phone running out of memory, becoming increasingly laggy.

Heavy node burden:
To run a full node,
you need to configure a super high-end computer,
which ordinary people simply cannot afford.

Layer-2 expansion is limited:
Although Layer-2 has become much cheaper,
it is still not enough, and transferring between different Layer-2s is still quite troublesome.

The Fusaka upgrade is specifically designed to address these issues.

🚩What did the Fusaka upgrade do? Three core improvements

📌1. Made the "temporary storage locker" bigger and more user-friendly
Do you remember the "Blob" introduced in 2024?
You can think of it as a temporary storage locker.
Layer-2 networks need to temporarily store transaction data on the Ethereum mainnet,
and Blob is specifically used for storing this data.

But the previous Blob had a problem:
The locker was too small to hold much, and storage time was limited.
When there is too much data, everyone has to wait in line to store, and fees naturally increase.

What did the Fusaka upgrade do?

Expanded the capacity of the Blob:
The amount of data each block can hold has increased,
just like turning a single dorm room into a quadruple room.

Optimized data processing methods:
Introduced a technology called "PeerDAS",
which allows validating nodes to not download all the data,
but only randomly check a portion to confirm if the data is correct.
Just like a teacher not having to grade every student's homework,
but only checking a few to know how everyone is doing.

What is the result?
Transaction fees on Layer-2 can decrease further, even approaching zero. This means that transferring on-chain, playing games, and trading NFTs will become super cheap.

📌2. "Slimming down" Ethereum nodes
Running an Ethereum node is like running a convenience store open 24 hours — you need a sufficiently large warehouse to store all the goods (data), and enough staff to handle customer demands (validate transactions).
The problem is that Ethereum has been running for 10 years, accumulating more and more data. Now, to start a full node, you need a super high-end server, and ordinary computers simply can't handle it.
The Fusaka upgrade "slimmed down" nodes in two ways:

Smarter data pruning:
Just like regularly cleaning out old photos and cache on your phone,
nodes can safely delete old data that is no longer needed.

Optimized data storage methods:
Compressing and organizing data more efficiently, taking up less space.

Why is this important?
Because the threshold for running a node has been lowered,
more ordinary people can participate,
making Ethereum more decentralized,
safer, and more resistant to censorship.

Imagine if only a few large companies could run nodes,
they could control the entire network;
but if there are thousands of nodes worldwide,
the network cannot be easily attacked or shut down.

📌3. Increased block capacity, accelerated transaction speed
Fusaka also did an important thing:
Increased the Gas limit of each block from 30 million to 150 million.

What is Gas?
It can be understood as the "fuel cost" for transactions.
Each transaction requires a certain amount of Gas,
and there is a limit to how much Gas each block can hold.

Increasing the Gas limit is like increasing the number of seats on each bus
from 30 to 50
— each trip can carry more passengers,
significantly improving overall transport efficiency.

In theory, this can increase the transaction speed of the Ethereum mainnet
from the original 15-20 transactions per second to 40-60 transactions per second.

🚩The long-term value brought by the Fusaka upgrade
For developers: They can confidently build large applications
In the past, many applications were hesitant to be built on Ethereum,
because it was too expensive. For example:

High-frequency trading: needing to process hundreds of transactions per second, the costs are unbearable.
Blockchain games: every action in the game could be a transaction, and traditional methods are too costly.
AI applications: running AI models on-chain requires a lot of computation and data storage.

After the Fusaka upgrade, the costs for these applications have decreased significantly,
and developers can finally build truly large applications on Ethereum with confidence.
For users: cheaper, faster, and better experience

The most direct benefit is:
When you transfer, trade, or play games on Layer-2, the costs will be lower, and the speed will be faster.

Moreover, as cooperation between different Layer-2s becomes smoother,
transferring your assets from Arbitrum to Optimism will become easier,
without having to go through a long wait.

For Ether holders: increased demand, enhanced value
As the entire ecosystem becomes more active, the demand for Ether will naturally increase:

Using Blob on Layer-2 requires payment in Ether.
Node staking requires Ether.
All transaction Gas fees are paid in Ether.

The more prosperous the ecosystem, the stronger the economic cycle of Ether.

Are there any risks?
Any upgrade comes with risks, and Fusaka is no exception. The main risks include:

Node synchronization issues:
After the upgrade, old nodes may need time to adapt to the new data format.
Short-term fluctuations in Gas fees: there may be cases of fee instability during the transition period.
Smart contract compatibility: some contracts that rely on old mechanisms may need adjustments.

However, the good news is that the Ethereum team has extensive upgrade experience, and these risks are manageable.

Summary: Fusaka is a key step towards Ethereum's maturity
The Fusaka upgrade is not just a technical update,
but lays a solid foundation for large-scale applications of Ethereum in the next decade.

It makes transactions cheaper, speeds them up,
decentralizes the network,
and gives developers the confidence to build truly world-changing applications.

In the next 1-3 years,
we are likely to see explosive growth in the Layer-2 ecosystem,
and more and more Web2 applications truly migrate to Web3.

Ethereum is evolving from "usable" to "user-friendly",
and the Fusaka upgrade is the most crucial step in this transition process.



#web3 #ETH