Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has laid out ambitious objectives for the next phase of the Ethereum blockchain's development, dubbed “The Surge.” In a technical blog post on October 17, Buterin emphasized the need to achieve over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across both Ethereum’s mainnet and its layer 2 solutions, as well as enhance interoperability among these layer 2 networks.
Buterin articulated a vision where Ethereum should feel like a cohesive ecosystem rather than a collection of disparate blockchains. “Ethereum should feel like one ecosystem, not 34 different blockchains,” he stated, highlighting the importance of a seamless user experience across the network.
He celebrated the success of Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, which was bolstered by the Dencun upgrade in March. This upgrade, which combined the Shanghai and Cancun-Dened updates, introduced a range of scaling improvements, such as “blobs” that allow for cheaper data and reduced fees on layer 2 networks. However, Buterin acknowledged that this strategy has also brought unique challenges.
Critics have raised concerns about “extractive L2s” that appear to siphon users and revenue from Ethereum’s mainnet, introducing new security risks. In his post, Buterin stressed the need for Ethereum to address several key issues, including:
Buterin pointed out that developing trustless rollups akin to the Ethereum mainnet has stalled due to fears of potential bugs in the code. He emphasized that trustless rollups are essential for robust scaling over time.
In addition to improving layer 2 solutions, Buterin highlighted the necessity of scaling the Ethereum base chain to keep pace with increasing demand. He noted that if layer 2 solutions become highly scalable while the mainnet remains limited in transaction processing capacity, it could pose significant risks for the Ethereum network.
To address this, Buterin proposed increasing Ethereum’s gas limit as a straightforward solution, although he acknowledged that this might introduce centralization risks. Alternatively, he suggested making certain features and types of computations cheaper without sacrificing decentralization. Proposed improvements include:
Buterin also stressed the importance of improving the user experience when interacting with layer 2 networks. He noted that many Ethereum users have raised concerns about the complexity of navigating the ecosystem. “If we are serious about the idea that L2s are part of Ethereum, we need to make using the L2 ecosystem feel like using a unified Ethereum ecosystem,” he asserted.
By enabling easier communication between layer 2 networks, users could transfer tokens seamlessly without needing to bridge or swap them into a native token for gas payments. This change would significantly reduce the technical burden on users.
Historically, Ethereum’s development trajectory followed the ETH 2.0 roadmap, which aimed to scale the network through “sharding” — a strategy that envisioned multiple Ethereum blockchains running in tandem. However, in October 2020, Buterin shifted focus away from sharding towards the emerging solutions of Optimistic and ZK-rollups. These layer 2 projects execute computations off the main chain while still benefiting from Ethereum’s security.
In closing, Buterin emphasized the importance of bringing the rollup-centric roadmap to fruition while maintaining the robustness and decentralization that define Ethereum's mainnet. As Ethereum moves forward, these goals for “The Surge” represent a critical step in the platform’s evolution.
October 2024, Cryptoniteuae