Ethereum Technology Upgrade Outlook: The Surge

Recently, the co-founder of Ethereum proposed a series of ideas regarding the future development of the Ethereum protocol, covering multiple stages. This article will focus on interpreting the second part, The Surge, which primarily focuses on the scalability of Ethereum and its long-term development plans.

Ethereum's Core Vision

The essential goal of Ethereum is to become the infrastructure of a decentralized internet. Through the automated execution of smart contracts, Ethereum supports complex decentralized applications, and this flexibility makes it the preferred platform for developers to build applications such as DeFi and NFTs.

However, Ethereum has obvious limitations in scalability. Currently, the Ethereum mainnet can only process 15-30 transactions per second, which is a huge gap compared to traditional payment networks. This leads to high transaction fees during periods of network congestion, limiting Ethereum's potential to become a global infrastructure. The Surge is designed to address this issue.

The main objectives of The Surge include:

• Achieve a combined transaction processing capacity of over 100,000 transactions per second for the Ethereum mainnet and layer 2 networks.
• Maintain the decentralization and robustness of the mainnet
• Ensure that the second-layer network fully inherits the core features of Ethereum.
• Maximize interoperability between Layer 2 networks to build a unified ecosystem.

Rollup-based Scaling Solutions

The Surge plan primarily enhances scalability through layer two solutions, with rollup technology being key. This strategy positions the Ethereum mainnet as a powerful and decentralized base layer, while the expansion tasks are delegated to layer two networks.

Rollup technology packages transactions off-chain and then submits the results to the mainnet, significantly improving throughput while ensuring security and decentralization. It is estimated that rollups are expected to enhance Ethereum's transaction processing capacity to over 100,000 transactions per second, which will be a revolutionary advancement.

This year, rollup technology has made significant progress: with the launch of EIP-4844, the data bandwidth of the Ethereum mainnet has greatly increased; several rollup projects based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine have also entered their initial stages. Each Layer 2 network exists as an independent shard, achieving diversification of sharding.

Progress in Data Availability Sampling Techniques

Data availability sampling ( DAS ) is another key technology of The Surge, aimed at addressing data availability issues. In a decentralized network, it is crucial that all nodes can verify data without having to store or download the entire content.

DAS allows nodes to verify data without accessing the full dataset, thereby improving scalability and efficiency. Currently, there are two main forms of DAS: PeerDAS and 2D DAS. PeerDAS is expected to enhance the security of rollups. 2D DAS not only samples randomly within data blocks but also samples between data blocks.

With the help of DAS, Ethereum can handle a larger amount of data, achieving faster and lower-cost rollups without affecting the level of decentralization. Further optimization of 2D DAS is needed in the future, along with proving its security attributes.

Plasma and Other Scaling Solutions

In addition to Rollup, Plasma, which was proposed early on, is also an important layer 2 scaling solution. Plasma creates independent child chains to process transactions and periodically submits summaries to the mainnet. Even if there are data availability issues, users can still recover their assets by extracting the latest available state.

Although the development progress of Plasma lags behind that of rollups, it is still considered an important component of the Ethereum scalability toolkit. In addition, improved data compression techniques and cryptographic proofs also contribute to further enhancing the efficiency of rollups and other Layer 2 solutions.

Improvements in Cross-Layer Network Interoperability

The main challenge facing the current Layer 2 ecosystem is weak cross-network interoperability. Directions for improvement include:

• The address contains chain information, simplifying the cross-network sending process.
• Standardized cross-chain payment request format
• Develop standard protocols for cross-chain exchanges and Gas payments
• Provide lightweight clients to enhance users' verification capabilities on Layer 2 networks.
• Achieve a shared token bridge to reduce cross-network transfer costs
• Allow synchronous calls between multiple Layer 2 networks to improve DeFi efficiency

These improvements involve not only technical issues but also require collaboration between the layer two network, wallets, and the mainnet.

Continue to expand the Ethereum mainnet

The expansion of the Ethereum mainnet itself has significant value. The main strategies include:

1. Improve technology to enhance mainnet verification efficiency, thereby increasing Gas limits.
2. Reduce the cost of specific operations while increasing the average capacity without increasing risk.
3. Implement native Rollup, that is, create multiple parallel Ethereum Virtual Machines.

These strategies have their pros and cons, requiring trade-offs.

Decentralization and Security

During the expansion process, maintaining decentralization is a core principle of Ethereum. Unlike some high-performance blockchains, Ethereum's scaling strategy ensures that anyone can run a node, truly achieving decentralization.

As Ethereum develops towards a rollup-centric future, ensuring the trustlessness of these systems becomes crucial. This requires rigorous testing and iteration, especially as these technologies are widely adopted.

The Outlook for The Surge

After the completion of The Surge, Ethereum is expected to achieve highly scalable, decentralized, secure, and sustainable goals. This vision includes not only scaling the mainnet through rollups and DAS but also improving the consensus algorithm, optimizing development tools, and fostering a thriving decentralized application ecosystem.

Despite facing numerous challenges, such as the large-scale implementation of rollups and ensuring the security of Layer 2 solutions, if Ethereum can overcome these obstacles, it will solidify its position as a core infrastructure of Web3. In the rapidly evolving blockchain space, Ethereum's focus on achieving scalability without sacrificing decentralization is what makes it unique. The success of The Surge could again change the landscape of blockchain technology in the coming years.