Last updated on March 29th, 2024 at 03:19 pm
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What makes the roadmap vital to Ethereum?
Cryptocurrencies are one of the hottest topics in tech and finance and will remain this way for years to come. Ethereum, the second most crucial cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and the developers’ platform of choice for decentralized applications (dApps), stands out through its roadmap, or a list reflecting the goals and aspirations of the project in the foreseeable future.
While not every cryptocurrency has a roadmap, it is essential in the case of Ethereum, whose use cases extend beyond those of a simple decentralized blockchain network. The greatness of this cryptocurrency is reflected by the Ethereum price, whose fluctuations have rewarded numerous investors over time.
As you will see, the project’s roadmap is the best starting point for a better understanding of what’s ahead for the network and the developers’ constant work and plans for the future.
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What is the Ethereum roadmap?
A roadmap is generally referred to as a visual representation of plans that showcases projections and helps investors improve their awareness of a platform’s future modifications and goals. It represents progress, priorities, and vision, making it essential for a project that faces constant development like Ethereum.
Ethereum’s roadmap outlines interconnected protocol updates that will improve the network’s security, scalability, and sustainability. It results from intensive efforts from developers and researchers, as the protocol’s technicalities are enormous. While not everyone may be comfortable learning about Ethereum’s complex features, everyone can develop ideas for improving Ethereum.
There are many platforms and forums where developers and essential individuals in the crypto sphere gather to bond with the community behind Ethereum and exchange information and opinions on what the platform may need to improve. Ethereum magicians and etresearch.com are some examples.
One of the main features that propelled Ethereum to popularity is the fact that it witnesses constant updates to improve its security, scalability, energy usage, and ease of use. For all these enhancements, Ethereum needs a roadmap that can be followed in future years. It suffers constant changes and updates as work is done to enhance all aspects enumerated. When the developer team proposes modifications to it, they’re usually made public by Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, and announced in various ways, including his Twitter account. Essentially, you can consider it a list of intentions for the network’s development. It highlights the leading developers’ goals and researchers’ best bet on Ethereum’s future.
Vitalik Buterin’s vision
Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has a vision regarding Ethereum’s roadmap, which is divided into a few categories depending on their impact on the network’s architecture. Here’s a summary of them:
The Merge – marking the transition from the PoW to the PoS and reducing energy consumption by 99.95%.
The Surge – improving the network’s capacity, speed, and scalability through data sharding and layer-2 rollups.
The Scourge – addressing MEV concerns, decentralization, and censorship resistance.
The Verge – replacing Merkle trees with Verkle trees, facilitating block verification.
The Purge – decreasing computational expenses for running nodes and streamlining the protocol.
The Splurge – incorporating other upgrades out of the categories mentioned above.
Sharding
Giving exact dates for Ethereum upgrades can be difficult for the team behind the project. There’s parallel work done on different aspects, and the speed differs. As such, we can broadly say that Ethereum’s next upgrade will occur at a specific date in 2024.
Sharding will be part of the transition to Ethereum 2.0 and mark the final journey, addressing the network’s scalability. There are additional modifications to the roadmap’s plan, but they’re less imperative. The Ethereum network will keep developing to become better.
The principal features that sharding is expected to implement
Sharding is projected to enable everyone to run Ethereum. Stakers won’t have to store and maintain all the data by themselves, which could decrease prices on layer-1 as hardware usage will drop significantly.
Also, another goal behind sharding is to allow everyone to run a node by simply using their phones, laptops, phablets, or other mobile devices. Lower entry requirements and more approachable platforms will lead to increased participation, higher decentralization and improved security.
Ethereum 2.0 is on the way
There have been three updates since the Beacon Chain’s debut on the first of December 2020, with the transition from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake model marking the most remarkable upgrade. The Beacon Chain’s launch represented the beginning of this process as it made Ethereum possible to stake.
Switching to Ethereum 2.0 is challenging and requires significant efforts to finalize. There have already been several technical issues along the way, such as those associated with security, accessibility and scalability, which is why transformations are urgently needed.
The development of Ethereum 2.0 is split into three steps. The last part of the transition from Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0 is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Proto-dank sharding, the latest milestone on Ethereum’s roadmap, will make Ethereum more energy-efficient, secure, and scalable.
It’s safe to say that Ethereum 2.0 is a pressing necessity. Users are faced with enormous petrol prices, consume high amounts of energy, and undergo significant transaction confirmation delays. Plus, the imperative issue of scalability goes beyond transactions. It impacts components of DeFi and NFTs, such as borrowing and lending. For example, due to the high traffic on the network, developing and selling NFTs may bring about higher gas fees.
When’s the completion date of the roadmap?
Some adjustments to Ethereum will be concluded in the following six months, such as taking withdrawals. Quantum resistance, for instance, is one of the intended modifications but is hierarchically lower on the priority list and isn’t anticipated to happen for five to ten years.
Foreseeing the exact timing of each update is challenging because many roadmap elements are being developed at different times and at varying speeds. Plus, diverse external factors trigger the need to change prioritization over time as some upgrades become more urgent than others. For instance, an unforeseen increase in the availability and performance of quantum computers may make it more critical to develop and improve quantum-resistant cryptography.
Ethereum is more than just a transfer of value.
ETH, the native token of Ethereum, isn’t all that was given to the world. Ethereum makes strides to be more than just a mere cryptocurrency, payment method, or transfer of value. For example, it enabled smart contracts, decentralized applications, decentralized finance, and other items that helped it overpower Bitcoin in terms of functionality and real-world use cases.
Cryptocurrencies are one of the hottest topics in tech and finance and will remain this way for years to come. Ethereum, the second most crucial cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and the developers’ platform of choice for decentralized applications (dApps), stands out through its roadmap, or a list reflecting the goals and aspirations of the project in the foreseeable future.
While not every cryptocurrency has a roadmap, it is essential in the case of Ethereum, whose use cases extend beyond those of a simple decentralized blockchain network. The greatness of this cryptocurrency is reflected by the Ethereum price, whose fluctuations have rewarded numerous investors over time.
As you will see, the project’s roadmap is the best starting point for a better understanding of what’s ahead for the network and the developers’ constant work and plans for the future.
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