Originally published on: October 17, 2024
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has laid out ambitious goals for the future of the Ethereum blockchain in his latest roadmap, known as the “Surge.”
In a recent technical blog post, Buterin outlined his key objectives for the Surge, which include reaching more than 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) across Ethereum’s mainnet and layer-2 blockchains, as well as enhancing interoperability between different layer 2s.
Buterin emphasized the importance of unifying the Ethereum ecosystem, stating that it should feel like one cohesive entity rather than multiple disconnected blockchains.
The success of Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, driven by the Dencun upgrade earlier this year, has propelled the platform forward. However, Buterin acknowledged that this approach has introduced its own set of challenges.
The Dencun upgrade, consisting of the Shanghai and Cancun-Dened updates, brought about various scaling improvements, such as cheaper data storage and reduced fees on layer 2 networks.
Critics have raised concerns about the impact of “extractive L2s” on Ethereum’s mainnet, leading to potential security risks and inflationary issues with the native token, Ether. Buterin addressed these concerns, highlighting the need for trustworthy rollups to maintain Ethereum’s core properties and ensure sustainable scalability.
To address scalability issues on the base chain, Buterin proposed solutions like increasing the gas limit and optimizing gas costs for specific computations without compromising decentralization.
In addition to technical upgrades, Buterin emphasized the importance of enhancing user experience across Ethereum’s layer-2 networks to create a seamless ecosystem. Simplifying token transfers between different chains and improving interoperability mechanisms for users were key priorities outlined in his post.
Moving away from the traditional ETH 2.0 roadmap centered around sharding, Buterin is focused on advancing the rollup-centric approach to scaling Ethereum while preserving decentralization and security.
As Ethereum continues to evolve, Buterin’s vision for the Surge aims to propel the platform towards greater scalability, interoperability, and user-friendliness in the decentralized finance space.