Ethereum 3.0? Blockchain researcher voices new idea for scaling the Etherium network
Analyst and well-known representative of the Etherium ecosystem Justin Drake, who is actively involved in its development, tweeted about a probable solution to the scalability problem of the first layer of the network. Drake himself considers his initiative “ambitious.” In a nutshell, it involves reviving the sharding principle to significantly increase the capacity of the Eth blockchain.
The topic of scalability, or the blockchain’s ability to handle an ever-increasing number of transactions, is a key one for Etherium. Still, this network can only handle an estimated 15 transactions per second.
Developers have opted for the concept of running Ethos-based Layer 2 networks to improve metrics like transaction confirmation time and finality. Although this approach is still limited.
Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin
The day before, Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Etherium, commented on the topic of network bandwidth. In his opinion, the target level here is 100 thousand transactions.
However, this figure takes into account the capabilities of second-level networks like Base or Arbitrum. We wrote more about the developer’s thoughts in a separate article.
Ethereum 3.0 release date
Sharding is a method of network scaling that involves dividing the blockchain into several parts called shards. Each shard acts as a mini-blockchain that handles its own transactions and smart contracts, thus allowing for increased network capacity by distributing the load evenly.
The idea here is to reduce the amount of data that each node in the network has to process. Consequently, the system is more scalable and available for mass use, although it becomes more fragmented.
The concept of sharding was first formed back in 2017 as one of the solutions to the network scalability problem. At that time, the Etherium network was actively used for ICOs, that is, to raise funds for new cryptocurrency projects. From time to time, this led to network overload and a sharp increase in transaction processing time.
Change in the value of Etherium ETH in 2024
In 2020, the Etherium development team included sharding in the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, which marked the beginning of the network’s transition to a new consensus algorithm – Proof-of-Stake.
The first stage of this transition was the activation of the Beacon Chain in December 2020, which began processing new blocks using the Proof-of-Stake or PoS consensus algorithm.
In September 2022, the so-called Merger - the merging of the main Etherium network with the Beacon Chain - took place, after which the ecosystem finally transitioned to PoS. At this stage, the network did not yet include sharding, but developers were still focused on the subsequent realisation of this concept.
Blockchain developers
Instead of implementing sharding, however, the developers of Etherium began implementing the principle of dunksharding. This approach allows for the creation of “pooled data blocks” or blobs that nodes on the network must work with. The implementation of dunksharding reduces the requirements for nodes and allows scaling the network.
What will happen to Efirium in the future?
According to Cointelegraph’s sources, Justin Drake is going to talk more about his idea at the current Devcon 2024 conference. Here is a relevant quote from the developer on the matter.
Tomorrow at 5pm on the Devcon main stage I will be presenting my most ambitious initiative to date. For a year I’ve been thinking about what a global change in the level of consensus in Efirium might look like. The goal is to propose a solid strategy to realise an extremely ambitious and exciting roadmap, and within a reasonable timeframe.
Analyst Justin Drake
Following Drake’s announcement, rumours of a possible ETH 3.0 update have been circulating in the community. Ambient Finance founder Doug Colquitt posted an opinion piece saying that the announcement of the new update is “the second Merge under the new consensus, targeting blocks with a 1-second creation time.” Here’s a rejoinder to that.
Word is that a major Eth 3.0 announcement is coming this week – a second Merge with a new consensus targeting blocks with a record 1 second creation time, as well as the integration of SSF and native zkEVM. Native zkEVM is a real breakthrough, as gas limits disappear completely. Developers will now be able to build blocks of any complexity, because nodes will only need to check snark proofs. The only limitation for scaling is the network bandwidth. If you look at it from a certain angle, it can put an end to the need for rollups at all, because the first level network will be able to grow infinitely.
In an interview, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin also commented on Drake’s ideas. He suggested that the developer update includes a rethinking of the concept of sharding. This could entail the development of a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) at layer one.
What’s interesting is that this way of using the first level of the ecosystem was not possible a few years ago when we discarded the idea of sharding.
Consensys executive Joe Lubin
At the moment, Etherium’s throughput is around 15-30 transactions per second. This figure is limited by the current network architecture and the requirement for each full node to process all transactions and maintain the state of the entire network. This limitation makes the network vulnerable to congestion when high demand causes transaction fees to skyrocket.
Many in the cryptocurrency community believe that the Efirium ecosystem currently lacks a clear development vector. Still, even though new projects based on the blockchain are appearing, the main network still cannot be called efficient. Perhaps Justin Drake's initiative will change something, but it still takes a lot of time to implement global changes.
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