As the crypto market focuses on the quickly evolving situation relating to the Alameda-FTX saga, almost every news outlet out there is talking about the same thing, neglecting other interesting news. Over at Margex, we try to cover important developments and updates in the market that will give our readers more value add instead of chasing eyeballs and will continue to uncover developments that may have been left out by the media but are however good for readers to know to help in their investment decisions.
In the midst of the craziness of the FTX saga, The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, had released an updated version of the Ethereum Roadmap. We summarise the main points below so readers can get an idea of what is to come to help them decide if they would like to use this market dip to pick up some Ethereum should they be as bullish as we are about it.
The update was an improved version of the previous five part Ethereum roadmap, which explains how the network will achieve scalability and efficiency. The update now has six parts, namely, the Merge, the Surge, the Scourge, the Verge, The Purge, and the Splurge.
The Merge
The first part of the Merge was started in September with Ethereum’s transition from the proof-of-work to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. The second stage of the Merge will be to achieve single-slot finality.
The Surge
After the Merge is complete, the next part is the Surge, where scalability solutions are expected to start getting implemented. With the Surge, the goal is to improve network throughput on Ethereum from its current 20 TPS to 100,000 TPS. This means Ethereum will be able to process transactions way faster than it currently can now.
The Scourge
The third part is the Scourge, which is a new addition to the updated roadmap. Buterin explained that it would “ensure reliable and fair, credibly neutral transaction inclusion and solve MEV issues” to make Ethereum a more equitable blockchain. This upgrade could resolve the problem of spam transactions which have been known to have clogged up many other blockchains like Solana.
Miner Extractable Value (MEV) occurs when a miner front-runs other participants in the network by deciding which transactions are to be placed in a block and in what order, which has made Ethereum more centralized than it should be. The Scourge aims to eliminate this problem.
The Verge
The Verge is the fourth part, which will now also focus on verification and not only “Verkle trees”as in the previous rendition. Buterin explained that the endgame of the fourth part is a fully SNARKed Ethereum. SNARK is a short form of “Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge.” When completed, SNARKed Ethereum will have a higher level of user anonymity on the network while still allowing transactions to be traceable.
The Purge
Next comes the Purge, which is a series of upgrades aimed at simplifying the protocol by reducing historical data storage and technical debt. In addition to history expiration, the Purge will incorporate state expiry, which prunes state that has not been touched in some defined amount of time, possibly one year. Expired state assets could still be retrieved by displaying a proof as long as some other party maintains a copy of the chain’s history elsewhere. By eliminating dormant states, Etheruem’s load will reduce and make it faster and more efficient.
The Splurge
The final step comes the Splurge, which is a catch-all bucket for miscellaneous upgrades that don’t fit neatly in any of the previous categorizations. Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) is the most prominent upgrade in The Splurge.
Conclusion
While not everyone can fully understand the details of the Ethereum Roadmap, it certainly looks thoughtful and well-defined, with even the most intricate details covered. This shows the commitment Ethereum developers have to make Ethereum the best blockchain for mass adoption and achieving Ethereum’s ethos of becoming a trustless and permissionless settlement layer for a global decentralized world.
While the price of Ethereum did rise around 5% post the release of the newest update to the already elaborate roadmap, the crypto market became victims of the FTX debacle immediately after, which caused prices to tank by more than 30% across the board. Ethereum was not spared either, losing a hefty 38% in the bloodbath.
The FTX incident however, does not alter the fundamentals of Ethereum. In the short-term, there could be some ramifications should the counterparties of FTX and Alameda need to sell tokens to raise funds to cover whatever shortfalls they may encounter and drag down the price of widely-held coins like Ethereum. However, should an event of such nature happen, it is nonetheless a good opportunity for the long-term investor to scoop up some Ethereum at a fire sale price, and keen investors should be on the lookout for any sharp dip to start acquiring.
The above information is for educational purposes only and views are that of the author’s. They should not be taken as the official view of Margex nor should they be treated as financial advice. Please do your own research and due diligence before doing any investment or trading as these actions carry risk. Should you be in doubt, kindly speak with your personal financial advisor.
