Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has shared his ambitious vision for the future of the network, known as “The Surge.” This phase aims to achieve over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across Ethereum’s mainnet and layer-2 solutions. Buterin highlighted the importance of improving interoperability between layer-2 networks while maintaining the decentralization and security of the blockchain’s mainnet.
The current scaling roadmap for Ethereum focuses on a rollup-centric approach, with the mainnet serving as the secure foundation and layer-2 solutions handling the network’s scaling. However, Buterin acknowledged the challenges that come with this strategy and emphasized the need to carefully navigate them to preserve Ethereum’s core strengths.
One of the key aspects Buterin addressed is the user experience within the L2 ecosystem. He stressed the importance of making the L2 ecosystem feel like a unified Ethereum ecosystem to ensure a seamless experience for network users. This involves innovation in areas such as data availability sampling, data compression, trustlessness of L2 networks, and enhancing user interaction between blockchains.
In addition to focusing on layer-2 solutions, Buterin also highlighted the necessity of scaling Ethereum’s base chain to keep up with increasing demand. While increasing the gas limit could be a straightforward way to scale the network, Buterin warned of centralization risks that could compromise the blockchain’s credibility as a robust base layer.
To address scalability challenges, Buterin proposed alternative approaches such as introducing new bytecode formats, multidimensional gas pricing, and reducing gas costs for specific opcodes. He also mentioned the concept of native rollups as a potential strategy to enhance scalability while maintaining decentralization and security properties.
However, Buterin cautioned against significantly raising the gas limit, as it could negatively impact Ethereum L1’s decentralization without offering substantial improvements in overall scalability. He emphasized the need to strike a balance between scaling solutions and preserving the unique characteristics that make Ethereum L1 special.
Overall, Buterin’s ‘Surge’ plan underscores the importance of innovation, interoperability, and scalability in driving exponential growth for Ethereum. By addressing these key areas, Ethereum aims to solidify its position as a leading blockchain platform capable of supporting a wide range of decentralized applications and use cases.
