tl;dr
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced plans to scale Ethereum's Layer 1 (L1) by 10 times within the next year using a cautious, phased approach involving upgrades like mobile log-level access lists and distributed history storage. He proposes a pause after this initial scaling to assess dece...
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced an ambitious plan to scale Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1) by 10 times within the next year. He proposes a cautious, phased approach focusing on key upgrades such as mobile log-level access lists, networking improvements, and distributed history storage. This strategy emphasizes maintaining decentralization and executing upgrades gradually rather than rushing into aggressive scaling.
Buterin advocates for a pause following the initial scaling phase to evaluate decentralization and implement fixes through a hard fork addressing issues like account abstraction, censorship resistance, VM improvements, and protocol simplification. Only after these adjustments does he envision moving forward with advanced innovations, including zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines, to boost scalability further.
Contrasting Buterin’s measured approach, some community members call for more aggressive scaling. Researcher Dankrad Feist, for example, supports raising Ethereum’s gas limit through proposals such as EIP-7938, aiming to increase the network’s capacity by 100 times over four years, while still preserving privacy and decentralization.
Amid these scaling debates, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has issued stark warnings about Ethereum’s future, predicting it risks obsolescence within the next decade. He attributes this potential decline to the fragmentation caused by Layer-2 solutions, which he believes weaken Ethereum’s core network integrity.
Buterin’s approach reflects a broader trend in the cryptocurrency space: balancing the urgency of scaling with the need to preserve decentralization and security. His phased plan invites the community to consider the trade-offs between rapid expansion and network robustness. As Ethereum navigates this critical juncture, the question remains: will cautious innovation or bold leaps drive its path forward?