Ethereum, the decentralized smart contracting platform behind DeFi and NFTs, is currently facing an issue with transaction verification. In a recent blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin acknowledged that verifying transactions on the mainnet is challenging, causing difficulty for users to run their own nodes and instead rely on third-party services.
To address this issue, Buterin presented two potential solutions in his blog.
Firstly, Buterin suggests that the mainnet could be constrained to force activity to layer-2 while still improving scalability. This involves reducing the mainnet gas-per-block target from 15 million to 1 million and using layer-1 solely for verifying layer-2 protocols. However, this solution could make existing L1-based applications economically unfeasible, and user funds could get stuck due to high fees.
Secondly, Buterin proposed the use of a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) that could SNARK-verify the mainnet, making it easier to verify Ethereum on various devices such as laptops, phones, and browser extensions. Although this method comes with challenges, including generating proofs in real-time and choosing a type of zkEVM to use for verification, Buterin believes the open multi-zkEVM option is the best path.
Buterin's proposals highlight the need for a more scalable and efficient Ethereum protocol. The Polygon network has also recently launched its zkEVM mainnet beta, open-sourcing the technology for further development. With these new solutions, the future of Ethereum is promising. Let's hope they can implement them quickly because Ethereum could use a bit of a pick-me-up, don't you think?
Firstly, Buterin suggests that the mainnet could be constrained to force activity to layer-2 while still improving scalability. This involves reducing the mainnet gas-per-block target from 15 million to 1 million and using layer-1 solely for verifying layer-2 protocols. However, this solution could make existing L1-based applications economically unfeasible, and user funds could get stuck due to high fees.
Secondly, Buterin proposed the use of a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) that could SNARK-verify the mainnet, making it easier to verify Ethereum on various devices such as laptops, phones, and browser extensions. Although this method comes with challenges, including generating proofs in real-time and choosing a type of zkEVM to use for verification, Buterin believes the open multi-zkEVM option is the best path.
Buterin's proposals highlight the need for a more scalable and efficient Ethereum protocol. The Polygon network has also recently launched its zkEVM mainnet beta, open-sourcing the technology for further development. With these new solutions, the future of Ethereum is promising. Let's hope they can implement them quickly because Ethereum could use a bit of a pick-me-up, don't you think?
