Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a blog post titled 'Endgame,' outlining a plausible roadmap to address the network's critical scalability challenges. The post, released on December 6, 2021, responds to growing criticism over Ethereum's high data transfer fees and limited throughput, while also discussing the upcoming proof-of-stake transition and censorship resistance.
The Endgame Vision
In 'Endgame,' Buterin proposes a multi-pronged approach: a second tier of staking with low resource requirements, coupled with fraud proofs or ZK-Snarks that allow users to cheaply verify block validity. The goal is to maintain decentralization and censorship resistance even as block production becomes more centralized. 'What do we get after all of this is done? We get a chain where block production is still centralized, but block validation is trustless and highly decentralized, and specialized anti-censorship magic prevents the block producers from censoring,' Buterin writes. He adds that even if all primary stakers attack or censor, the worst outcome is their mass offline, forcing the community to pool resources and run an honest node.
Rollup-Centric Future
Buterin's blog follows discussions among Ethereum developers on EIP-4488, which could cut rollup data costs by five times. He emphasizes that a rollup-centric roadmap is key to Ethereum's adaptability. 'Ethereum is very well-positioned to adjust to this future world, despite the inherent uncertainty. The profound benefit of the Ethereum rollup-centric roadmap is that it means that Ethereum is open to all of the futures, and does not have to commit to an opinion about which one will necessarily win,' he states. However, Buterin warns about cross-domain MEV (maximal extractable value) and cross-shard MEV, which could undermine decentralization gains. He urges researchers to carefully assess achievable decentralization levels in block production.
Big Block Chains and Long-Term Outlook
Turning to 'big block chains' like Bitcoin Cash, Buterin notes that they have a path toward trustlessness and censorship resistance if their communities prioritize these values. He concludes that while sharding and data availability sampling are complex and will take years to implement and audit, a realistic bright future for scalable blockchains is emerging. 'Cross-domain MEV research too is still in its infancy. But it does look increasingly clear how a realistic but bright future for scalable blockchains is likely to emerge,' he writes. The 'Endgame' roadmap underscores Ethereum's commitment to scaling without compromising core principles, setting the stage for broader adoption in DeFi, NFTs, and beyond.