Thread by @ramahluwalia

What are @VitalikButerin’s thoughts on 2021 and the years ahead?

This is part 1 of our @BanklessHQ pod summary featuring hosts @RyanSAdams and @TrustlessState and Vitalik.

In part 1, Vitalik shares the Ethereum roadmap and expanded on the details within it.

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState In 2021:

• Was a great year for adoption and mainstream attention
• Fascinated by the rise of NFTs
• Plenty of new people came into the space

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState • DAOs experimented with different governance algorithms
• The progress in layer 2 scaling has been amazing

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState 💡 What Is Sharding?

Sharding is a database partitioning technique used by blockchain companies with the purpose of scalability, enabling them to process more transactions per second

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState Sharding splits a blockchain company's entire network into smaller partitions, known as "shards." Each shard is comprised of its own data, making it distinctive and independent when compared to other shards

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState The Major Milestones For Ethereum in 2021

• The beacon chain proved itself
• The Altair hard fork added the basic scaffolding needed to support Litecoin
• The next hard fork will most likely be the Merge

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState 💡 The Beacon Chain, a brand-new proof-of-stake blockchain lies at the core of Ethereum 2.0; it stores and manages the registry of validators and coordinates the shard chains. The Beacon Chain went live on Dec. 1, 2020 at noon UTC

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState • The testnet for the Merge/Kintsugi testnet was launched a few weeks ago
• There have been a lot of progress on infrastructure projects
- @proofofhumanity
- @signinwitheth
• Cross-Layer 2 bridging is still in its infancy
• ERC-4337 is on testnet

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth ERC-4337 enables account abstraction without Ethereum protocol changes

medium.com/infinitism/erc…

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth What Can People Do With Kintsugi Testnet?

• They can connect nodes
• They can become stakers
• They can launch contracts and trade coins around
• A lot of testing and auditing is being done

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • What is uncertain is how clients would sync after the Merge
• Things are currently going smoothly

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth How Far Along Are We On The Grand Ethereum Vision?

• Around 50%
• Will be 60% after the Merge is complete
• Will go past 80% once full sharding is implemented

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth What Is The Grand Ethereum Vision?

Vitalk posted an infographic on 1st December 2021. There are 5 stages in the infographic: The Merge, The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge

https://twitter.com/vitalikbuterin/status/1466411377107558402

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Time is left to right in the infographic
• Everything is happening in parallel

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth The Merge - Transition to PoS

• The Merge is the transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake
• The full specification of the Merge process was recently completed

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • A few bugs had been discovered in the fork choice rule
• This is the function that nodes use to determine which block is the head block if there are multiple competing blocks
• After the Merge, the next step is the post-Merge hard fork

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • This is needed to enable withdrawals for beacon chain ETH depositors/validators
• Realistically, the post-Merge hard fork will be 6 months from the Merge

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth The Surge - Massive increase in scalability

• The surge is scalability increases for rollups through sharding
• Rollups work by having computation and storage go off-chain and data staying on-chain

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Rollups inherit the security of layer 1 and support full EVM scripting
• Sharding is designed such that execution happens inside the shards

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Has 4 stages:
- Data expansion: Adding more data space in the short term to make rollups cheaper
- Steps 2 and 3 involve easing into the sharding model. At the initial stage, everyone has to download and store the data

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - Once there are sufficient shards, we can rely on data availability sampling and other tech. Hence, any single node is not required to download everything
- Data availability sampling: clients can check that all of the data has been published without having to download all of it

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Users don’t have to do anything. They just have to move their activity from layer 1 to layer 2

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth 💡 Two types of execution time measurement:
Latency: The time needed before a single transaction gets confirmed
Bandwidth: The number of transactions per second

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • The Surge improves bandwidth, but not latency
• The Ethereum blockchain can handle 15 - 40 transactions per second
• Rollups with proper compression can go up to 1500 - 4000 transactions per second
• Rollups with sharding can go up to 100,000 transactions per second

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • In the long-term, using layer 1 will get more and more expensive
• Eventually, all activity will happen on layer 2
• Wrote a post titled Limits to Blockchain Scalability 6 months ago

vitalik.ca/general/2021/0…

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - Sharding gets around the limits of scalability in non-sharded blockchains
- Quadratic sharding is the idea that the beacon chain is going to contain headers of shard blocks. Hence, there are both beacon chain blocks and shard blocks

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - Theoretically, there can be any level of shards. However, the more the levels, the risker it becomes. Hence, Ethereum will be staying with quadratic sharding
- Wants to keep the numbers on the lower end to ensure it is safe

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth The Verge - Achieving Statelessness through Verkle trees

• The Verge is the introduction of Verkle trees
• Verkle trees are a replacement for Merkle Patricia trees
• Verkle trees are based on vector commitments

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • In order to verify a block n, users need to have the entire Ethereum state by doing a fast sync and downloading everything or download block n - 1
• The entire database will be getting larger. If the gas limit is increased, the size will grow even larger

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Stateless clients provide an alternative where instead of needing the entire database to verify a block, they use a Verkle proof which gives them only the pieces of the state that are read and written to in a given block along with a proof that proves that it is correct

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Proofs can be made with Merkle Patricia trees. However, they are more than 10 megabytes and might be too much for users to verify
• In contrast, Verkle trees have proofs that are much shorter and faster to verify

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • This helps validators to remain lightweight and to only verify blocks that they need to verify in real-time without needing to download an entire database

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth The Purge - Removal of historical data and technical debt

• The Purge is about eliminating the dead weight of history from Ethereum
• There are different types of dead weights:
- The load of the historical chain. This is hundreds of GBs. Post-sharding, it would be TBs

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - History expiry involves stopping the requirements for all nodes to store history that is more than 1 years old. The responsibility of storing and retrieving history gets shifted to other protocols

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - State expiry involves objects in the state that have not been touched for the last year that will go into a separate expired tree. Ethereum does not store expired trees. Users could revive the expired tree by providing Merkle proofs or by using a block explorer, etc.

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - Technical debt involves removing complexities in the code

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • History is self-verifying — Merkel proofs can be easily verified
• Wrote a post on Trust Models before:

vitalik.ca/general/2020/0…

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - Consensus is a N/2 of N trust model. Hence, there are more stringent requirements
- History is a 1 of N trust model. Hence, requirements are less strict

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth • Getting historical data:
- Centralized approach: etherscan, beaconscan, etc. store the entire chain because users want them. The Portal Network is supported by the Ethereum Foundation. Each node stores a small % of the data and it routes users to the data they want

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth - @graphprotocol: The Graph is not yet fully decentralized. They will be progressively decentralizing over time
- Light clients protocol: Will become much easier to support post-Merge

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol • Code that he would like to remove:
- Wrote a post on why he wanted to ban the self destruct opcode
- Gas stipends
- Removing precompile and replacing them with EVM implementations
- Remove or simplify logs

hackmd.io/@vbuterin/self…

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol 💡 @TrustlessState gave a good analogy of the Snake game, often found in mobile phones. The snake moves around, eats and it gets longer but eventually the length of the snake gets in the way of its movement.

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol It crashes onto itself and dies. This is similar to how a blockchain gets longer as more data is added, so the Purge is needed to keep it to a manageable length to stay agile. And alive.

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol The Splurge - Important but not urgent upgrades

• Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS): Revolves around the idea that the validator who proposes a block does not have to be the one that constructs the block
- Will have a mechanism to auction off the right to create blocks

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol - This allows anyone to be a validator
- Validators no longer have to store the state. They only have to verify blocks
- The block constructors have to create blocks and store the state

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol • Account Abstraction:
- Idea is to make smart contract wallets more like first-class citizens
- Currently, Ethereum assumes everyone has an externally owned wallet
- Account abstraction enables multisig wallets, social recovery wallets, etc. to become easy for anyone to use

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol - The newest development on account abstraction is in ERC-4337. It uses a layer 2 approach
- Instead of using layer 2 for scaling, it’s sort of using layer 2 for account abstraction
- The exact same ERC-4337 can work on ETH Mainnet, @optimismPBC, @arbitrum, @0xPolygon, etc.

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon • ZK-SNARK Everything
- Want to move away from the idea of users verifying things by re-executing them
- Only person who needs to run the EVM/beacon chain/state transition function etc. is the one who is creating the block
- This makes it extremely easy for anyone to run a node

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon Will Ethereum Be Fully Built Up After All The Pending Upgrades?

• He would say so
• The roadmap is not final. It just reflects the current rough consensus of the research team

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon • If everything on the roadmap is completed and nothing else changes after that, Ethereum will thrive over the long-term
• Could see everything being completed in 6 years
• Even if only the Merge and Surge happens, Ethereum can still thrive and last for multiple generations

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon • Thinks that PBS is necessary for security
• Apart from the Merge and the Surge, there are alternatives for everything else

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon What Happens When Ethereum Is Fully Built Out?

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon Podcast: podcast.banklesshq.com/99-endgame-vit…

Thanks to @RyanSAdams and @TrustlessState for this episode

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon Stay tuned for part 2 of the summary next week!

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~End Thread

@VitalikButerin @BanklessHQ @RyanSAdams @TrustlessState @proofofhumanity @signinwitheth @graphprotocol @optimismPBC @arbitrum @0xPolygon This is a collaboration with @The_ReadingApe