Uncompromising approach
Blockchain network Ethereum is on a mission to create a more resilient and user-centric ecosystem.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently acknowledged in a post on X that the platform had “lost ground” in terms of self-sovereignty and “trustlessness”.
He cited many reasons for the backslide.
These included decentralised apps (dApps) becoming “complicated behemoths that leak all your data to a dozen servers”, block building becoming more centralised and nodes becoming difficult to run.
While Ethereum still maintains the status of the world’s second-largest crypto and Ethereum price USD remains healthy, Buterin is drawing a line in the sand.
“Every compromise of values that Ethereum has made up to this point – every moment where you might have been thinking, is it really worth diluting ourselves so much in the name of mainstream adoption – we are making that compromise no longer,” he wrote in the post.
ZK-EVM improvements
His roadmap for Ethereum’s uncompromising approach makes for interesting reading.
A big focal point will be Ethereum’s zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (ZK-EVMs).
A ZK-EVM executes smart contracts in a way that is compatible with zero-knowledge proof technology – a method whereby one person can cryptographically prove to another party that they have knowledge of a certain piece of information without having to reveal the actual information.
There are two underlying concepts to a ZK-EVM – ZK-rollups and EVM.
A ZK-rollup on Ethereum is a type of rollup, or a scaling solution that compiles transaction executions beyond the main chain and then sends the relevant data back to the mainnet as one transaction.
In Ethereum’s case, the ZK-rollup doesn’t need to feed all transaction information back to the mainnet. It only needs to reflect any changes that have been made and provide proof of validity.
ZK-EVMs effectively extend the capabilities of ZK-rollups to support dApps.
What Buterin has taken issue with is that over the years it has become more difficult to run nodes on Ethereum users’ personal devices.
Improvements to ZK-EVMs are expected to reverse the trend. The intended result is for users to independently verify a blockchain without interference from intermediary parties.
Taking the power back
Enhancements to privacy are another major part of Buterin’s masterplan.
Ethereum is emphasising social recovery wallets and timelocks to safeguard against the loss of funds via theft and misplaced seed phrases.
In another significant security development, Ethereum will move application interfaces on-chain and host them on the Interplanetary File System – the file storage protocol that enables computers all over the world to store and serve files as part of a giant peer-to-peer network.
This will reduce dependence on servers vulnerable to hackers.
Like a universe boss
It is clear Buterin and Ethereum are determined to wrest power back from the centralisation creep that has taken hold in the crypto market.
Buterin readily admits that it will be a “long road” and nothing will come easily to Ethereum.
However, he believes at the end of the day these measures “will make Ethereum into an ecosystem that deserves not only its current place in the universe, but a much greater one”.