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The world’s dominant smart contract network, Ethereum, will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of web3. The upgrade roadmap has several phases that will cement Ethereum’s position as the foundation for the next iteration of the internet.
The Ethereum endgame path will take several years to play out but it is shaping up to have a huge impact on the internet as it evolves.
Ethereum Upgrade Roadmap
On September 6, Web3 developer Stacy Muur took a deep dive into the Ethereum roadmap and its role in the next iteration of the internet.
We define web3 as a decentralized internet where users own and control their data and identities. In contrast, search and social media corporations dominate the current version, Web2, profiting from the harvesting of user data.
The Merge was probably the network’s most significant upgrade since it launched in 2015. However, there are more major milestones ahead.
Read more: Ethereum Merge: Everything You Need To Know
The Surge,” the next major step, ushers in scalability improvements, beginning with the introduction of Proto-Danksharding. “This ensures sufficient data availability for rollup networks,” explained Muur.
Proto-Danksharding will be introduced with EIP-4844 expected in Q4 2023, to minimize the operational expenses associated with rollups and layer-2 networks.
After that, ‘The Scourge’ will provide upgrades that prioritize censorship resistance, decentralization, and address protocol risks related to MEV (maximal extractable value).
‘The Verge’ introduces statelessness by transitioning from Merkle Trees to Verkle Trees, enabling easier and simplified block verification. This will eliminate the need for validator nodes to keep a full copy of Ethereum’s state.
‘The Purge’ is a simplification of the protocol by reducing historical data storage and eliminating technical debt, Muur explained.
Final Phases
The final phase, ‘The Splurge,’ will fix everything else. This phase will include previously unaddressed upgrades such as Account Abstraction, Verifiable Delay Functions, and enhancements to the EVM.
Read more: ERC-4337: A Complete Guide To Account Abstraction
There have been several touted ‘Ethereum killers,’ such as Solana and Base, that have been rushed to push throughput at the expense of reliability. However, Ethereum is taking a slow and steady approach to its upgrade roadmap but will get there in the end. These upgrades will turn Ethereum into the decentralized financial layer of the internet to come.
Roadmaps aside, ETH prices remain in the doldrums. The asset has shown very little movement over the past couple of days and remains hovering around $1,635 at the time of writing.
Moreover, Ethereum is still 66.4% down from its peak price of $4,878 almost two years ago.