SNU Industrial Engineering and Computer Science Joint Research Team Wins Top Prize at the 2024 Ethereum Data Challenge
- Analyzing the Impact of Blob Introduction After EIP-4844 on Network Performance
- Recognized as a Critical Reference for Blockchain Technology Advancement


▲ (From left) Seongwan Park, Researcher at the Department of Industrial Engineering, SNU; Professor Jaewook Lee, Department of Industrial Engineering; Bosul Mun, Researcher at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SNU; Professor Hnsang Eom, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a joint research team from the Statistical Learning & Computational Finance Lab in the Department of Industrial Engineering and the Distributed Computing Systems Lab in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has won the Gold Prize at the "2024 Ethereum Data Challenge," hosted by the Ethereum Foundation.

The competition was organized to explore the practical impact of Ethereum's major upgrade, EIP-4844. The Ethereum Foundation praised the research results of SNU’s joint team, noting that their study not only made an academic contribution to EIP-4844 research but also provided a critical reference for the advancement of blockchain technology. The originality and significance of the study were cited as key factors behind their victory.

EIP-4844, applied during the Dencun hard fork in March 2024, introduced a new data structure called "blobs." This advancement improved data availability for rollups such as Optimism and Arbitrum by over 100-fold, significantly increasing transactions per second (TPS). These enhancements reduced blockchain transaction costs and encouraged broader adoption of blockchain applications.

To analyze the actual impact of blob introduction on the network following EIP-4844, the SNU joint team collected and analyzed data on changes in block data reception time and block processing time by Ethereum nodes, as well as metrics related to network stability. Additionally, they accounted for differences in data across distributed network locations by directly setting up nodes in Seoul, Paris, Singapore, and Virginia, ensuring adjustments for location-specific variations.

The team also analyzed EIP-4844's impact on the rollup ecosystem by gathering data on Ethereum network usage, rollup transaction frequencies, and the time required to ensure data availability for the top 10 rollups by Total Value Locked (TVL). This comprehensive analysis contributed to the success of their study.

First unveiled in May 2024 on the preprint site arXiv, the research is regarded as the first academic study to conduct an in-depth analysis of EIP-4844's impact. This achievement is particularly notable as a product of interdisciplinary collaboration between SNU’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The synergy generated through strategic collaboration, with the industrial engineering team focusing on multifaceted data analysis of systemic changes and the computer science team specializing in precise network speed measurements at the client level, was instrumental to their victory.

Seongwan Park, a researcher in the Department of Industrial Engineering (Academic Advisor Jaewook Lee) expressed his joy, stating, "I am delighted that our academic research on blockchain could contribute, even slightly, to the advancement of real-world protocols." Similarly, Bosul Mun, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (Academic Advisor Hyeonsang Eom) remarked, "It is an immense honor to have our research outcomes, achieved through teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration, recognized on the global stage. I hope to continue pursuing ambitious research in the future.“

Seongwan Park is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Industrial Engineering at SNU, where he is conducting follow-up research on methods to reduce fork occurrences in blockchain networks. Meanwhile, Bosul Mun, a master's student in the Department of Computer Science at SNU, is focusing on enhancing the efficiency and stability of blockchain networks and plans to pursue a Ph.D. at a global research institution in the future.
 

[Reference Materials]
“Impact of EIP-4844 on Ethereum: Consensus Security, Ethereum Usage, Rollup Transaction Dynamics, and Blob Gas Fee Markets”
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.03183

[Contact Information]
Seongwan Park, Researcher at the Statistical Learning & Computational Finance Lab, SNU Department of Industrial Engineering / sucre87@snu.ac.kr