Ethereum Upgrading Stages

[TL; DR]

At ETHCC Vitalik Buterin talked about the stages in ethereum blockchain upgrading.

Merge, Surge, Verge, Splurge and Purge are the five stages in the ethereum upgrading process.

After the upgrading the ethereum network will process 100 000 transactions per second.

Network efficiency, scalability and enhanced decentralization are the other benefits of ethereum upgrading.

keywords: ETHCC, Vitalik Buterin, Merge, Surge, Verge, Purge, Splurge, Ethereum

Crypto enthusiasts have been waiting for the Ethereum blockchain upgrade for a long time. They anticipate that the upgrade will bring to an end to some of the problems they experience while using the ethereum blockchain which include high transaction fees and low processing speed. The Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, at the Ethereum Community Conference held in Paris, explained the entire scope of the upgrade.

Source: Cryptonews

There are both short term and long term stages of the upgrading which are Merge, Surge, Verge, Purge and Splurge. Each stage focuses on a specific component. Buterin said that after all the stages of the upgrade are completed the blockchain should be able to process 100,000 transactions per second (TPS). However, Merge, the first stage, is in its final phase of testing and will be launched this year.

The ETHCC was a suitable stage for Buterin to give details of the various upgrading stages because it is the most important Ethereum annual event taking place in Europe where various experts attend. In fact, more than 250 international experts made presentations at the conference. The interest in Ethereum is reasonable considering that it hosts more than 96% of decentralized finance (DeFi). It is important to note that DeFi is an essential sub-sector of the blockchain with many profitable investment opportunities such as lending, staking, yield farming and liquidity provision.

Merge

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The Merge is an integration of ETH1 or the Ethereum executive layer and Beacon Chain, also referred to as the proof-of-stake (PoS) layer or ETH2. In other words, it is a shift from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism to the proof-of-stake one. It is very important because it enables the rest of the upgrading to take place. For example, the second stage, Surge, is only possible after the Merge.

The key Fac5682es of the Merge are the high reduction in electricity consumption and further enhancement of decentralization. However, it has its own downside. For example, when a new node joins the network it depends on the existing nodes to determine the blockchain state. This is called weak subjectivity.

Surge

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This is the next stage in the ethereum upgrading process where shards are introduced in the blockchain to increase scalability, reducing network congestion as well as increasing the network transaction throughput. Sharding is the process of splitting the blockchain database, thereby spreading the load of the chain. The shards act like mini blockchains linked to the main one. The main purpose of sharding is to enhance scalability of the ethereum blockchain. According to Buterin, at the end of this stage there will be 64 shards. The developers expect to complete this stage in 2023.

Verge

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At this stage, the developers will introduce Verkle Trees to reduce the node size and optimize Ethereum storage capacity. Verkle trees store data in the same manner as Merkle Trees but they use less storage. The ultimate goal of Ethereum is to stop nodes from storing the history data, thus reducing the storage capacity. Furthermore, users will become validators without the need to store much data. Buterim said that the Verge will contribute greatly to decentralization.

Source: Cointelegraph

Purge

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The purge involves simplifying the blockchain’s storage resulting in less network congestion than the current state. To achieve this, the system will no longer keep historical data and technical debt. This will be possible through the introduction of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4444. This is a great improvement to the blockchain as the (EIP) 4444 will set a time limit of storing historical data to 1 year. As such, the ethereum node will operate on a lighter hardware than now, and even enable the users to stake ETH using their smartphones. To this effect, Buterin said that if the blockchain needs to improve on decentralization and scalability it should not store too much data.

Splurge

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Vitalik Buterin did not say much about Splurge. All he said was that it is “all of the other fun stuff.”

Decentralized social media

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Apart from these important stages in the development of the ethereum blockchain, Buterin talked about other essential things that are part of the plan including a decentralized social media, his concern over high gas fees and the need to make ethereum quantum resistant.

According to Buterin, a decentralized social media is achievable and ethereum will work towards that. He envisions the type of social media where high quality of content forms a new social orientation as well as contributing to online identities. He criticized centralized social media for some malpractices which include data harvesting and “misaligned incentives.”

Source: Techcrunch

The decentralized social media will come with other essential features for the crypto community. Buterin, for instance, suggests introducing a “proof of humanity consensus,” a form of test to validate the user is a real person not a bot.

He also proposes to use Ethereum as a decentralized login service rather than relying on centralized social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Buterin opined that Ethereum-based login options should result in “credible neutrality,” censorship resistance, and a “built-in economic layer that makes it easier to do mechanism design.” The other related feature is the social recovery wallet, a smart contract used for recovering lost or stolen wallet addresses.

The light client

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This is an important feature or tool for querying information on the ethereum blockchain.

Quantum Resistance

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Buterin hinted on upgrading Ethereum for quantum resistance.This improvement is important to prevent quantum attacks when the quantum computers are introduced on the market in the near future. He said, “Once quantum computers come, we have to upgrade to different cryptography.”

Transaction Gas

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Before he concluded his speech, Buterin voiced his concern on the high ETH transaction fee, saying that it works in favour of wealthy traders, yet against average users. Definitely, the high gas fees retard the adoption of ethereum and the vibrancy of the ecosystem.

Conclusion

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Speaking at the Ethereum Community Conference, Buterin said that after the Merge Ethereum will only be 55% complete, showing that there is much in store for the users in the future. Surely, his presentation showed that much work is ahead since after the Merge there will be four more development stages which are Surge, Verge, Purge and Splurge. Part of the future development is a decentralized social media which will have a variety of functionalities such as a decentralized login and social recovery wallet.

Author: Mashell C., Gate.io Researcher

This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.

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