Key Insights
- •Ethereum news: Fusaka upgrade, scheduled for December 3 at 21:49 UTC, introduces PeerDAS to boost rollup data availability by up to 5x current capacity.
- •The hard fork raises gas limits to 120-150 million per block while adding native passkey-style signature support to improve wallet UX.
- •Fusaka combines the Fulu consensus layer update with Osaka execution changes through over a dozen EIPs focused on scaling and user experience.
Fusaka Upgrade: Revolutionizing Rollup Data Availability
In Ethereum news, the Fusaka upgrade goes live today. Its centerpiece is EIP-7594, Peer Data Availability Sampling, which fundamentally changes how consensus nodes handle blob data from rollups.
Instead of requiring every node to download complete blob datasets, PeerDAS allows nodes to randomly sample small chunks from peers to verify that the full blob set remained available. This cuts per-node bandwidth and storage requirements while preserving data availability guarantees.
The lighter workload per node enables Ethereum to safely increase blob capacity, with specifications pointing to a long-term target of roughly 4-5x current throughput. The network aims to support up to around 50 blobs per block compared to 12 under proto-danksharding. That translates directly into expanded layer-2 (L2) call data space and creating room to lower rollup fees for end users.
Fusaka also introduces blob-parameter-only forks tied to EIP-7892, establishing a mechanism to adjust blob counts and fee curves via lightweight parameter changes without requiring a full protocol overhaul. This offers core developers a dedicated dial to manage L2 capacity and pricing as demand evolved. That would make Ethereum News about future scaling adjustments more predictable for infrastructure providers.
Higher Gas Limits and Rebalanced Block Capacity
On the execution side, Fusaka raises Ethereum’s base gas ceiling while rebalancing gas usage within each block. The upgrade set the new effective limit in the 120 to 150 million gas range, up from roughly 30 million pre-Fusaka, while implementing caps on per-transaction gas usage to prevent single calls from dominating block space.
The design philosophy aims to provide more total transactional space per block for complex contracts while establishing guardrails against pathological transactions that could disrupt network performance. Gas-per-transaction caps and refines pricing for certain opcodes were intended to smooth fee spikes and improve worst-case behavior under heavy load, addressing long-standing concerns about unpredictable execution costs during congestion.
This higher execution bandwidth complemented PeerDAS by creating a two-tier system where blobs handled cheap data for rollups. At the same time, the larger gas limit gave layer-1 (L1) more breathing room for native activity and rollup settlement transactions. The combined effect positions Ethereum to handle significantly more throughput without forcing users to choose between L1 and L2 activity.
Passkey Signatures Enhance Device-Based Authentication
Fusaka adds native support for passkey-style signatures via EIPs in the 79xx range, extending Ethereum’s signature verification to handle a broader range of key types used in secure hardware and device-based authentication systems. The changes bring first-class protocol support for WebAuthn and FIDO-like schemes, powering modern login flows across consumer devices.
For wallet developers, this means the ability to implement flows like “sign with device passkey” or biometric approval without relying on workarounds built on top of ECDSA signatures. Combined with earlier account abstraction work from the Pectra upgrade, the passkey support moves Ethereum closer to smart wallets that offer recovery options, multi-factor authentication, and reduced dependence on seed phrases that users frequently mismanage or lose.
EOF Restructures Contract Code Validation
A substantial portion of Fusaka’s engineering effort went into the Ethereum Object Format, a structural overhaul of how EVM bytecode was packaged and validated. The coordinated bundle of EOF EIPs enforces a clear separation between code and data sections in contracts while validating control flow upfront rather than at runtime, making it easier for development tools to reason about contract behavior and upgrades.
EOF aims to eliminate entire classes of edge-case bugs and gas-estimation issues that had plagued developers while simultaneously making future EVM upgrades less disruptive. Though some development notes flagged complexity risks that could have delayed implementation, most public Ethereum news sources treated at least a minimal EOF set as shipping alongside PeerDAS in the December activation.
Improvements for Validators and Network Operations
Fusaka brings several changes to the consensus and operational layers that remained largely invisible to end users but were significant to node operators and infrastructure providers. Networking modifications support PeerDAS gossip and sampling protocols, including requirements for peer connection counts and how sampled shares were reconstructed across the network.
The upgrade incorporates validator UX improvements inherited from the Fulu consensus portion, including more robust custody key handling and clearer role separation between operators and stakers. History-expiry and state-management groundwork continues the march toward slimmer nodes and, in later upgrades, an eventual Verkle-tree-based state. However, the December fork does not yet delete large portions of historical data.
Rollups and Infrastructure as Primary Beneficiaries
In practical terms, Fusaka represents a plumbing upgrade focused on technical infrastructure rather than flashy DeFi or consumer-facing features. The net effect delivers more blob bandwidth for rollups, expanded gas capacity for L1 execution, improved tools and formats for smart contracts, and a cleaner path to passkey-style wallet implementations that could onboard mainstream users.
Most analyses identify rollup ecosystems and infrastructure providers as the primary winners, gaining access to cheaper data availability and more predictable throughput. End users stood to benefit downstream through lower L2 transaction fees and smoother wallet experiences, as these technical improvements filtered into consumer applications over the months following activation.