Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made it clear that there’s no way around the need for a 180-degree turn on how this blockchain does things. This change is the latest development in a broader trend to improve both scalability and privacy at the protocol level on Ethereum itself. Buterin’s vision has very clear goals of addressing what’s currently possible and setting the stage for Ethereum to handle mass adoption and future more complex applications.
Buterin’s call to action is often repeated, but it highlights the key change in mindset. What was once a positive demand for scalability and privacy morphed into integral requirements for Ethereum’s future. He envisions a blockchain that can achieve volumes many times larger than today’s blockchains while continuing to keep speed up and cost down. At the same time, he envisions a blockchain that safeguards user information and makes privacy possible when appropriate.
Scalability measures how many transactions per second a blockchain network can process. Ethereum is currently suffering from serious network congestion. This results in exorbitant transaction costs along with delayed processing times, notably at times of high demand. Improvements in scalability would position Ethereum to better support the multitude of decentralized applications (dApps) and users that are on the horizon.
Privacy is another key area of focus. For now, Ethereum transactions will remain completely public and transparent. This openness could be a red flag for users that require privacy. Integrating privacy-enhancing technologies would enable new use cases for Ethereum, particularly in areas such as finance and healthcare, where data protection is paramount.
Buterin and other Ethereum developers have been looking at several different potential solutions to make all of this possible. Within layer-2 scaling solutions, rollups are the crown jewel. These rollups handle transactions in an off-chain environment and ultimately aggregate them onto the main chain. Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) are another hot new technology. They allow users to prove the authenticity of a transaction without disclosing the transaction’s actual data.
Fortunately, the Ethereum community has been hard at work studying and testing these technologies. If successful, the implementation of these enhancements would be an impressive step forward for Ethereum and the ecosystem that has grown around it. Ultimately, it would create a more secure, performant, and user-centered Ethereum.
