Ethereum upgrades can seem distant and overwhelmingly technical. But the latest “Fusaka” hard fork is far more than a routine update. It marks a strategic pivot—a maturation from a fragmented development model to a cohesive strategy centered on monetizable infrastructure, pricing power, and long-term value creation.
This upgrade contains several surprising changes with real-world consequences for users, developers, and the future of the network. This article distills the five most impactful and counter-intuitive takeaways that show how Ethereum is evolving into an economically sustainable, cash-flowing platform.
Over the years, Ethereum has undergone several important upgrades, each building on the last. From The Merge in 2022 (which moved Ethereum to proof-of-stake) to Dencun in 2024 (which introduced data “blobs” to help Layer-2 rollups scale via EIP-4844) and Pectra in May 2025 (which improved staking and data handling), these upgrades laid the groundwork for Ethereum’s scalability roadmap.
Fusaka fits into this journey as the next leap forward – often described as an “infrastructure tune-up” that prepares Ethereum for the next era of growth. In this blog, we’ll break down what the Fusaka upgrade does, its timeline, and what it means for Ethereum users and investors alike.
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The Fusaka upgrade is a major network update designed to increase Ethereum’s throughput (transaction capacity) and efficiency. One headline change is that Fusaka will raise the block gas limit – effectively the amount of computation and data each block can carry – from about 45 million to 150 million gas units.
In practical terms, this means each new Ethereum block will be able to include more transactions and data than before, helping the network process more activity and reduce congestion. With this change, Ethereum’s base layer speed is expected to rise from roughly 15–20 transactions per second to around 40–60 transactions per second, marking one of the biggest performance jumps in its history.
However, Fusaka is much more than just a block size increase. It introduces two key technical innovations that allow this capacity boost without sacrificing Ethereum’s security or decentralization:
Together, PeerDAS and Verkle Trees enable Ethereum to scale up significantly without breaking decentralization. Fusaka’s core goal is to expand Ethereum’s capacity and preserve its security. By raising the data limits per block while using smarter data validation techniques, the network can handle more transactions at lower fees, especially benefiting Layer-2 scaling solutions that rely on posting data to Ethereum.
Nodes can now verify data they haven’t even downloaded.
The headline feature of the Fusaka upgrade is PeerDAS (EIP-7594), a fundamental shift in how Ethereum handles data. Previously, every validator on the network had to download all the data from Layer 2 “blobs” to verify it was available. This created a significant bottleneck, limiting how much the network could scale.
PeerDAS introduces a technique called “data availability sampling.” Instead of downloading entire blobs, validators now only need to download a small fraction of the data to be statistically certain that the complete dataset exists. To make this possible, blobs are split into tiny pieces called “cells” and organized into “columns.” Each validator is assigned specific columns to sample from their peers. It’s like confirming an entire book is intact by checking just a few random pages. This is enabled by a mathematical technique called “erasure coding,” which adds redundant data that allows the full dataset to be reconstructed even if parts are missing.
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This change is a massive breakthrough for scaling. For full nodes, it slashes data requirements by roughly 80%. Solo stakers will see around a 50% reduction in download bandwidth, though their upload bandwidth will initially increase 2-3x. This makes it more affordable for regular people to participate in securing the network, strengthening decentralization.
More importantly, this efficiency gain allows Ethereum to 8x the data capacity available for Layer 2s. This paves the way to serve exponentially more users, unlocking a potential ecosystem throughput of over 100,000 transactions per second. It is the key to massive scaling, and as we’ll see, its economic potential is secured by other changes in this upgrade.
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You’ll soon sign transactions with your face.
The Fusaka upgrade includes passkey support through EIP-7951. This update adds support for the secp256r1 signature scheme, which is the cryptographic standard used by modern devices like iPhones and Android phones for their built-in security features. This EIP formally corrects security flaws found in a previous proposal (RIP-7212), establishing a secure and standardized implementation for the entire ecosystem.
This means users will soon be able to sign Ethereum transactions using the same biometrics they use to unlock their phones—like Face ID or a fingerprint sensor—instead of managing complex and vulnerable seed phrases.
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This is a critical step for mass adoption. For years, the seed phrase has been the single greatest point of failure for users, leading to catastrophic losses from theft, phishing, or simple misplacement. EIP-7951 lowers the barrier to entry by bringing wallet security up to the standard people already expect from modern applications, lessening the divide between “everyday” apps and “crypto” apps.
Ethereum is about to 10x the wallet UX. The Fusaka upgrade includes EIP-7951 – support for the signature scheme that the iPhones use to power things like Face ID. Meaning you’ll soon be able to sign transactions with your face. Huge win for bringing normal people on-chain.
A ‘price floor’ for data will actually make L2 fees more stable.
One of the most counter-intuitive changes in Fusaka is EIP-7918, which establishes a “reserve price” or “fee floor” for blobs. Before this upgrade, blob fees could drop to near-zero because the main cost for Layer 2s was often the execution gas, not the blob fee itself. This made the blob fee market unresponsive and highly volatile.
EIP-7918 corrects this by linking the minimum blob fee to the execution base fee. This prevents the price of blobs from collapsing during periods of low activity and ensures there is always a meaningful cost associated with using this data space.
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This is the upgrade’s most significant economic shift. By ensuring Layer 2s always pay a meaningful price for resources, Ethereum is asserting pricing power in the data availability market. This move transforms blobs from a subsidized utility into a scalable revenue stream for the protocol and ETH holders.
The financial impact is stunning. An analysis by Fidelity Digital Assets estimates that if EIP-7918 had been active since the Dencun upgrade, it could have generated an additional $78,646,739 (24,641 ETH) in cumulative revenue for the protocol. This isn’t a theoretical improvement; it’s a tangible, multi-million dollar change that makes the network’s economics more sustainable and predictable.
The network can now increase its data capacity on the fly.
Fusaka introduces a new, more flexible upgrade method called Blob Parameter Only (BPO) forks (EIP-7892). This mechanism allows the network to increase its data capacity without waiting for a major, coordinated hard fork that bundles many changes together.
Following the Fusaka upgrade, developers have an aggressive schedule to scale capacity. BPO1 activates on December 9, 2025, raising the limits to 10 target and 15 maximum blobs, followed by BPO2 on December 17, pushing capacity to 14 target and 21 maximum blobs.
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This new agility is a significant change in how Ethereum evolves. It gives the protocol the flexibility to respond to Layer 2 demand in real time, rather than making the entire ecosystem wait months or even years for the next scheduled upgrade. This demonstrates that the protocol is becoming more adaptable and responsive to the needs of its users and builders, a key feature for a maturing infrastructure platform.
The ‘rollup-centric’ roadmap hasn’t forgotten about Layer 1.
While much of the focus is on scaling Layer 2s, Fusaka also includes a major upgrade for Ethereum’s base layer. EIP-7935 increases the gas limit from 45 million to 60 million per block—a roughly 33% increase in network capacity on Layer 1. To prevent single transactions from dominating blocks, a transaction gas cap was also introduced (EIP-7825).
This move is a direct reflection of Ethereum’s increasingly sophisticated economic strategy. It benefits complex DeFi protocols running on Layer 1, but more importantly, it shows that Ethereum is pursuing a dual-scaling strategy. While L2s scale horizontally, this EIP enhances Ethereum’s most valuable product: Layer 1 block space.
Because L1 transactions direct significantly more value to ETH holders than L2 transactions, this upgrade is a deliberate move to strengthen direct value accrual to ETH, countering the simplified narrative that Layer 1 is being left behind.
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Fusaka helps everyone who uses or builds on Ethereum, though in different ways.
For Everyday Users:
You might not see a big change right away, but over time you’ll notice that using Ethereum feels smoother and cheaper. Because each block can now hold more data, Layer-2 networks like Arbitrum or Optimism can fit in more transactions and save costs. This means lower fees and faster activity when you swap tokens, mint NFTs, or play blockchain games.
For Developers and App Builders:
Developers get a faster and more reliable network to build on. They can create apps that handle more users without worrying about gas fees shooting up or the network slowing down. Fusaka also brings new technical tools that make coding smart contracts easier and more efficient. In short, it gives builders more freedom to innovate instead of constantly fighting network limits.
For Node Operators and Validators:
Running an Ethereum node becomes lighter and easier. Thanks to Fusaka’s data sampling system, nodes only need to download small pieces of data instead of everything in full. This cuts down on bandwidth and storage use, which helps more people—like solo stakers and hobbyists—run their own nodes. That keeps Ethereum decentralized and secure. Node operators just need to update their software before the upgrade, and tools like eth_config make that simple.
For Investors and the Wider Ecosystem:
Fusaka makes Ethereum stronger at its core. By improving speed, scalability, and user experience, it encourages more people and projects to use Ethereum and its Layer-2 chains. This can increase activity, demand for ETH, and confidence in Ethereum’s long-term future. A more efficient and widely used network usually means more value flowing through it—good news for both the ecosystem and ETH holders.
The Fusaka upgrade marks an important step for Ethereum in 2025 — one that makes the network faster, cheaper, and more scalable. With new features like PeerDAS and higher data limits, Ethereum can now handle more transactions while staying secure and decentralized.
For users and developers, this means lower fees, smoother performance, and more room to build. For investors, it shows that Ethereum continues to lead the way in solving real scaling challenges.
As the mainnet upgrade goes live on December 4, 2025, the community expects a smooth transition after months of testing. If all goes as planned, Fusaka will be remembered as the upgrade that unlocked Ethereum’s next phase of growth, bringing more users, more innovation, and a stronger foundation for the future.
Fusaka is Ethereum’s next major upgrade, designed to improve scalability and efficiency. It introduces new technologies like PeerDAS to handle more transactions and data per block while keeping the network decentralized.
The Fusaka mainnet activation is scheduled for December 4, 2025, following successful test runs on Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi testnets.
Indirectly, yes. By increasing Ethereum’s data capacity and improving Layer-2 efficiency, Fusaka helps reduce network congestion — leading to lower transaction fees over time, especially on rollup chains.
No action is required. The upgrade happens automatically on the network; users simply need to ensure their wallets and apps are up to date.
Fusaka strengthens Ethereum’s foundation for long-term growth. It makes the network faster, cheaper, and more decentralized — paving the way for wider adoption and future upgrades.
Anush is a crypto researcher dedicated to making blockchain insights clear and accessible. A proud Solana maxi who still appreciates a good Layer 2 debate, he dives deep into market trends so others don’t have to (but really should). Passionate about simplifying crypto, he strives to make the space less intimidating and a lot more relatable, one report at a time.
