Vitalik Buterin Updates Ethereum Roadmap

Ethereum's founder, Vitalik Buterin, has shared the latest updates on the roadmap for Ethereum following the successful Merge upgrade.

Nearly two months after the Merge transitioned Ethereum to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, Vitalik Buterin has released new details regarding the development roadmap for the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.

In the previous roadmap update from July 2022, Vitalik outlined four key phases for Ethereum's future development post-Merge: The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.

Here’s the focus for each phase:

• The Surge: Introduces Sharding technology and reduces Layer 2 fees. This phase targets mainstream Ethereum users.
• The Verge: Implements Merkle trees to minimize data storage requirements for transaction verification. This is aimed at Ethereum validators.
• The Purge: Simplifies Ethereum’s technical aspects by removing unnecessary historical data through EIP-4444. This phase benefits Ethereum developers.
• The Splurge: A series of upgrades to ensure smooth operation after the previous phases are implemented.

Vitalik Buterin noted that these four phases will progress concurrently rather than sequentially. The pace of each phase will depend on the development teams responsible for specific upgrades.

Recent Updates:

• The Surge: The term “sharding” has been dropped in favor of EIP-4844 (Danksharding), integrating zk-EVM and rollup scaling solutions, with a target to boost transaction speeds to 100,000 tps.
• The Verge: Adds verification features through SNARK technology to ease transaction processing for validators.
• The Scourge (new addition): Focuses on ensuring fairness in transaction selection and addressing MEV (Miner Extractable Value) issues.
• The Splurge: Includes completing EIP-1559 and other auxiliary upgrades.
• Most initial steps of each phase are now about 50% complete.

These updates highlight Ethereum's recognition of MEV-related issues and its dedication to addressing them with a dedicated phase. Vitalik Buterin has also emphasized accelerating transaction speeds and reducing fees, with a new target of 100,000 tps for The Surge phase. The development process remains closely monitored and driven by Ethereum's governance, providing the community with greater assurance about the project’s progress.

Earlier, as reported by Coin68, Ethereum developers have begun testing the Shanghai upgrade, which will unlock a substantial amount of ETH previously locked for Ethereum 2.0's Merge. Shanghai is expected to launch around September 2023.