• Ethereum will test the Dencun update on the Sepolia and Holesky networks on Jan. 30 and Feb. 7.
• Dencun, a crucial “hard fork” for Ethereum, aims to reduce transaction and data costs, with release expected in late February or early March.

Ethereum developers have set a timeline for the latest updates to the ‘Dencun’ testnet. Trials of Dencun will be conducted on the Sepolia and Holesky test networks on January 30 and February 7, respectively, which puts the update on track to reach the main network in late February or early March.

It is known so far that a group of Ethereum developers, who are planning the blockchain’s biggest upgrade in a year, known as Dencun, have confirmed in a blog post the dates for making the changes on two key test networks, which are theoretically the last steps before going live on the mainnet .

Dencun is a major upgrade or “hard fork” planned for the Ethereum blockchain that will enable “proto-danksharding,” a technical feature that will lower the cost of transactions on Layer 2, as well as make data available on the blockchain cheaper.

Before it goes live on the main blockchain, developers will conduct a dress rehearsal of the protocol changes on the Sepolia and Holesky test networks on Jan. 30 and Feb. 7.

The announcement follows the upgrade that took place last week on the Goerli testnet, which was successfully activated despite some minor hiccups. Dencun will go live on Sepolia at 22:51 UTC and epoch 132608. If all goes according to plan, the final test for Dencun will take place at Holesky on February 7 at 11:34 UTC, epoch 950272.

After that, the developers will set a date for Dencun to hit the Ethereum mainnet, which is now targeted for late February or early March.