Vitalik’s Blog Unveils Ethereum Verification Solutions

To address this issue, Buterin presented two potential solutions in his blog.

Firstly, Buterin suggests that the mainnet could be constrained to force activity to layer-2 while still improving scalability. This involves reducing the mainnet gas-per-block target from 15 million to 1 million and using layer-1 solely for verifying layer-2 protocols. However, this solution could make existing L1-based applications economically unfeasible, and user funds could get stuck due to high fees.

Secondly, Buterin proposed the use of a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) that could SNARK-verify the mainnet, making it easier to verify Ethereum on various devices such as laptops, phones, and browser extensions. Although this method comes with challenges, including generating proofs in real-time and choosing a type of zkEVM to use for verification, Buterin believes the open multi-zkEVM option is the best path.

Buterin's proposals highlight the need for a more scalable and efficient Ethereum protocol. The Polygon network has also recently launched its zkEVM mainnet beta, open-sourcing the technology for further development. With these new solutions, the future of Ethereum is promising. Let's hope they can implement them quickly because Ethereum could use a bit of a pick-me-up, don't you think?