Key Takeaways:
- ‘The Merge’ has successfully transitioned Ethereum from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), reducing energy consumption and improving security.
- Upcoming upgrades, such as Danksharding, will enhance Ethereum’s scalability, speed, and efficiency.
- Ethereum’s long-term roadmap focuses on better user experience, increased security, and future-proofing the network.
- The Crypto.com App offers a seamless way to buy ETH and engage with the evolving ecosystem.
Introduction: Ethereum’s Ongoing Evolution
The Ethereum network, which powers a vast ecosystem of decentralised applications (dapps), has come a long way since its inception. As the pioneer of smart contracts on a blockchain network, Ethereum has been at the forefront of groundbreaking trends like decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), GameFi, the Metaverse, and Web3. However, the network’s growing adoption has raised concerns regarding scalability, energy consumption, and transaction costs.
To address these challenges, Ethereum’s developers have been working on a series of upgrades and improvements, known as Ethereum 2.0. These upgrades aim to make the network more sustainable, scalable, secure, and efficient for real-world applications. In this article, we explore the future of Ethereum and the upcoming developments that will shape its growth in the coming years.
Ethereum 2.0: A Recap of the Milestones
Ethereum 2.0 is a series of upgrades designed to enhance the Ethereum network’s performance across various aspects. The journey began with the Beacon Chain’s launch in December 2020, which marked the introduction of the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to Ethereum.
In 2021, several enhancements followed, including the Berlin and London upgrades, which optimised gas fees and introduced Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559 (EIP-1559). The Altair and Arrow Glacier upgrades further improved the Beacon Chain’s functionality and delayed the difficulty bomb.
Following these upgrades, 2022 saw the Gray Glacier, Bellatrix, and Paris upgrades, collectively known as ‘The Merge’. These successfully transitioned Ethereum from Proof of Work (PoW) to PoS, where, instead of miners, validators who staked ETH became responsible for generating blocks.
After the Shanghai Upgrade
The latest update on Ethereum’s roadmap was the Shanghai Upgrade in April 2023. This update, which included EIP-4895, allowed ETH validators to unlock their staked ETH within the network. As a result, staked ETH and associated rewards became accessible, significantly increasing ETH liquidity in the cryptocurrency market.
During the Ethereum Shanghai update, the Beacon Chain also received a Capella upgrade, which allowed validator nodes with staked ETH to fully prepare for the Shanghai Upgrade by updating their withdrawal keys and broadcasting this information following the Beacon Chain’s Capella upgrade.
Danksharding: The Next Phase in Ethereum 2.0
Danksharding is the third significant upgrade stage in Ethereum 2.0, focused on horizontal database scaling. This enhancement will distribute the responsibility of managing vast data generated by Layer-2 rollups. Unlike the traditional sharding model, Danksharding will use distributed data sampling across blobs to make Ethereum more scalable, decreasing data storage costs and empowering anyone to become a validator. This increased accessibility will lead to greater decentralisation and enhanced security.
Proto-Danksharding: EIP-4844
EIP-4844, or Proto-Danksharding, is the first step to achieving full Danksharding. It aims to address Ethereum’s scalability issues by expanding transaction volume on the network with a temporary solution to increase the block size by up to 2 MB, thus reducing gas fees for users and making the network more efficient.
Proto-Danksharding introduces temporary data blobs that can be seamlessly transmitted and linked to blocks. These blobs provide inaccessible data to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), ensuring automatic deletion within a set time frame (one to three months). This update will significantly reduce costs for rollups, ultimately providing end users with more affordable transaction options.
Full Danksharding
Full Danksharding is the ultimate evolution of rollup scaling, originating from Proto-Danksharding. This phase will expand the blobs attached to blocks in Proto-Danksharding from 1 to 64, enabling massive storage space for rollups to effortlessly store their compressed transaction data. This upgrade will also offer seamless support for hundreds of individual rollups — making millions of transactions per second (tps) a tangible reality on the Ethereum network.
Expected Timeline
While the complete implementation of Danksharding may take several years, Proto-Danksharding could arrive sooner. EIP-4844 is in a mature stage, with agreed-upon specifications and prototypes already implemented on the client side. After the successful conclusion of the Shanghai update, these changes could be implemented in a public testnet and refined before being rolled out. Some experts believe Ethereum could gain sharding capabilities by the end of 2023 or early in 2024.
How to Buy ETH With Crypto.com
The Crypto.com App offers an easy and seamless way to buy ETH and engage with the evolving Ethereum ecosystem. The App provides a user-friendly interface and wide range of payment options, making it convenient for both experienced traders and newcomers to purchase Ether.
To get started, download the Crypto.com App and create an account. Once the account is set up and verified, users can fund it using a credit/debit card, bank transfer, or other supported cryptocurrencies. After funding the account, simply navigate to the Ethereum row, place an order, and acquire ETH.
Conclusion: The Future of Ethereum Holds Great Promise
Ethereum’s future is filled with exciting developments and upgrades that aim to make the network more scalable, secure, and sustainable. The Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, along with the upcoming Danksharding upgrades, will undoubtedly make the Ethereum network more attractive for developers, users, and traders alike. With the Crypto.com App, users can easily buy ETH and stay up to date with the latest developments in the Ethereum ecosystem.
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