How Ethereum Will ‘Go Fast’ Decentralized: Vitalik Demystifies the Surge

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined the network’s path to completing its scalability roadmap.
• Completion of the roadmap will require several Layer 2 improvements.
• Beyond Layer 2-focused improvements, Vitalik emphasized the importance of improving the robustness of the Layer 1 chain.

With several new shiny Layer 1 chains bursting onto the scene, many are beginning to argue that Ethereum is losing its luster. But it might be too soon to count the “ DeFi King” out.

Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reminded proponents and detractors of the goal of the network’s now-highly criticized rollup-centric roadmap , outlining what is needed to complete it. This goal is to reach 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) while preserving Layer 1 decentralization and robustness.

Ethereum’s Scaling Roadmap: the Surge

Ethereum’s roadmap is divided into phases, each representing a problem the network aims to tackle. The code name for Ethereum’s scaling roadmap is the Surge, which kicked off with the March 2024 Dencun upgrade . This upgrade introduced blobs to reduce the cost of settling transactions on Ethereum for Layer 2 chains . The end goal of this phase is to allow Ethereum to process 100,000 TPS to facilitate high-volume applications like payments and decentralized social media.

In a blog post on Thursday, October 17, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reiterated this goal while outlining the path forward. According to Vitalik, Ethereum will achieve the 100,000 TPS target by improving data availability for Layer 2 chains, employing data compression on Layer 2 chains, and implementing Plasma scaling solutions. Plasma is a scaling solution where only a fraction of the Layer 2 data called Merkle root is posted on-chain.

Notably, Ethereum is already well on its way to achieving this goal as developers look set to improve data availability for Layer 2 chains by implementing PeerDAS, short for Peer Data Availability Sampling, with the second package of the network’s next major upgrade, Pectra, set to go live in 2025.

According to Vitalik, progressively increasing Ethereum’s blob capacity with PeerDAS combined with Layer 2 data compression techniques will bring the network to its medium-term goal of 58,000 TPS, magnitudes higher than the current TPS. For context, the current maximum TPS of a rollup on Ethereum is just 173.6.

In the Thursday blog post, Vitalik noted scaling efforts were going hand in hand with Layer 2 decentralization and UX improvement efforts. The Ethereum co-founder pointed out that the main hurdle to decentralizing Layer 2 chains was a lack of confidence in the proof system. He noted two main ways to tackle this: formal verification of the proof system and employing multiple provers. According to Vitalik, work is already underway for formal verification.

For better Layer 2 UX, the Ethereum co-founder tipped solutions like chain-specific addresses, cross-swap standards, and shared token bridges to help make the network feel like a single ecosystem.

Beyond these Layer 2-focused improvements, Vitalik emphasized the importance of improving the robustness of the Layer 1 chain.

Scaling the Layer 1

“If L2s become very scalable and successful but L1 remains capable of processing only a very low volume of transactions, there are many risks to Ethereum that might arise,” Ethereum’s Vitalik cautioned in the Thursday blog post. Risks outlined by the developer included risks to ETH’s value, which could impact network security and the inability to handle potential Layer 2 wind-downs.

To scale the Layer 1 chain, Vitalik conceded that the most direct path was to raise the gas limit per block. However, he noted that this risked making network validation harder, which could increase centralization concerns. As such, the Ethereum founder argued for the simplification of network verification first through technological improvements.

One of these technological improvements is the EVM Object Format (EOF), which intends to make Ethereum’s smart contract programming environment more developer-friendly and implementation more efficient. EOF, like PeerDAS, is also set to go live with the second Pectra package.

On the Flipside 

• The completion of Ethereum’s scaling roadmap will likely take several years.
• Other new generation Layer 1 chains are also likely to make advancements as Ethereum scales.

Why This Matters

Sentiment in the Ethereum community has been significantly poor in recent months. Vitalik’s latest post offers community members a reason to be excited about the network’s prospects.

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