Ethereum:
The Infinite Garden
The 6 Pillars
Vitalik Buterin's vision for Ethereum's evolution isn't linear; it's a parallel progression of upgrades.
The transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. Reduced energy consumption by 99.95% and set the stage for sharding.
Massive scalability through Rollups and Data Sharding. Aiming for 100,000+ TPS. Includes EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding).
Ensuring reliable and credibly neutral transaction inclusion. tackling MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) and centralization risks.
Verkle Trees and stateless clients. Making it easier to run a node by reducing the data storage requirements.
Simplifying the protocol and eliminating technical debt. Clearing old history to reduce hard drive space for nodes.
The fun stuff. Miscellaneous upgrades like Account Abstraction, EVM improvements, and quantum resistance.
EIP-4844: Proto-Danksharding
The most significant upgrade for Layer 2s. It introduces a new transaction type that carries "Blobs" of data.
- The Problem: Rollups currently store transaction data in the
calldataof Ethereum blocks, which is expensive and permanent. - The Solution: Blobs are temporary storage (deleted after ~18 days) attached to blocks. They are dirt cheap because they don't bloat the state forever.
- The Result: L2 transaction fees drop by 10-100x, making Ethereum rollups competitive with alt-L1s.
Social Recovery
Lost keys? Recover via trusted friends.
Session Keys
Play games without signing every move.
Pay with USDC
Pay gas fees with any token.
Multisig
Native multi-signature support.
ERC-4337: Account Abstraction
Making crypto wallets act like smart apps. ERC-4337 upgrades "Externally Owned Accounts" (EOAs) to Smart Accounts.
- No More Seed Phrases: Enable social recovery, biometric login, and 2FA.
- Gas Abstraction: Applications can sponsor gas fees for users (Paymaster), or users can pay gas in stablecoins.
- Programmable Logic: Set spending limits, automate recurring payments, and bundle multiple transactions into one click.
The World Computer
Ethereum is evolving from a single blockchain into a modular ecosystem of layers.