The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has recently celebrated a significant milestone: the tenth anniversary of the Ethereum blockchain. This occasion marks the unveiling of a forward-looking roadmap aimed at enhancing and diversifying its ecosystem for the upcoming decade.
New Horizons for the Ethereum Ecosystem
In a recent announcement, the EF highlighted Ethereum’s remarkable journey, emphasizing its unprecedented uptime since launch, a diverse range of clients, and an economic security valuation reaching approximately $130 billion, based on 35.7 million ETH staked at around $3,700 per coin.
The foundation envisions a future where this security metric could soar to an astonishing $1 trillion, potentially comprising about 30% of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization.
The EF positions Ethereum as a pivotal component of what it calls the “internet of value,” primed to safeguard substantial wealth over generations and even centuries.
The new roadmap stresses Ethereum’s durability in the face of various challenges, such as threats from governmental entities and advancements in quantum technologies.
This resilience is encapsulated in the term “fort mode.” The EF asserts that as long as the internet exists, Ethereum will persist, seamlessly merging the physical and digital realms.
The Lean ETH Approach
To tackle future challenges, the EF is embracing a “beast mode” strategy, focusing on scalability improvements for both Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) protocols.
Over the next 6 to 12 months, the foundation targets ambitious performance goals, including achieving 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on Layer 1 and 1 million TPS on Layer 2, with a commitment to uphold decentralization while enhancing performance.
The roadmap details a series of fundamental upgrades across Ethereum’s core layers: consensus, data, and execution. The “lean Ethereum” initiative advocates for the implementation of substantial enhancements, such as the upcoming Beacon Chain 2.0, focused on enhancing security and accelerating transaction finality.
Furthermore, the data layer will evolve into Blobs 2.0, designed to withstand quantum threats, while the EVM 2.0 will streamline execution without compromising compatibility with present protocols.
A pivotal component of these advancements is the integration of hash-based cryptography. The EF notes this methodology as essential in responding to emerging trends such as succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (SNARKs) and the looming challenges posed by quantum computing.
This innovative cryptographic strategy aims to bolster the performance and coherence of Ethereum’s architecture across consensus, data, and execution layers.
Beyond technical upgrades, the “lean Ethereum” philosophy espouses principles of minimalism, modularity, and manageable complexity. The EF asserts that these tenets underline the crucial role of formal verification and security, supporting gradual and responsible scaling while preserving Ethereum’s essential values.
Image credits to DALL-E; chart data sourced from TradingView.com.
