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Ethereum has been a leader in blockchain innovation, being a foundation of decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. The Ethereum network is going through rapid growth. This growth is resulting in it being bombarded by scalability issues, besides security and user experience challenges.
In an attempt to solve the above-mentioned problems and enhance performance, Ethereum 3.0 was introduced by Vitalik Buterin. It promises a 'transformational upgrade' for the network. The completion target for the new upgrade is set in 2026. Ethereum 3.0 will take advantage of the success of the previous version, Ethereum 2.0 while filling the gaps that exist in the present system.
It will be released in phases aimed at enhancing Ethereum's scalability, decentralization, and security. Let's explore the main phases that will define Ethereum 3.0 in detail.
Sharding will be one of the major features of Ethereum 3.0, which will accelerate scalability. Sharding means splitting the Ethereum blockchain into smaller chains known as ‘shards.’ This will allow Ethereum to process more transactions parallelly and greatly increase its throughput.
Ethereum 3.0 aims to increase transactions per second, with a possible figure reaching above 100,000 when combining both the Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. The new enhancement will solve the network’s existing problems of high gas fees and network congestion during peak period usage.
The Scourge phase will solve the problems associated with Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). MEV stands for the miners' ability to reorder transactions within a block to extract maximal value, often from network users. It has been the source of centralisation and unfair prioritisation of transactions under the Ethereum network.
The proposed concept of proposer-builder separation, or PBS in Ethereum 3.0, aims at providing the much-needed separation of transactions from their proposers and the ones building the blocks. Thus, making transaction processing more fair by removing miner manipulation risks and further increasing the decentralisation of Ethereum.
In the Verge phase, Ethereum 3.0 will mainly focus on reducing the resources required to run nodes. This will make it easier for people to interact with the network as validators. The innovation on stateless verification is also crucial in this phase. It will make it possible for Ethereum to operate with significantly reduced storage requirements through the introduction of Merkle Trees.
This change will allow nodes to operate on lower-power devices, including smartphones, making the Ethereum network more accessible. Hence, enabling a more diverse constituency of holders to participate in its consensus mechanism.
This phase will also look at streamlining the protocol of Ethereum through the removal of redundant data and is basically going to reduce data bloat. Ethereum has accumulated much data over time, which tends to make it inefficient and slow down the network. Purging the data will make Ethereum more efficient by making the network lighter and faster.
This phase will ensure that Ethereum will be efficient, even as its user base and transaction volumes continue to grow.
The last phase is the Splurge, which would be an improvement of UX and security. This would prepare the whole Ethereum ecosystem against cyber and phishing attacks. Ethereum will work on EVM to make it strong, safe, and ready for developers and users to work with.
These upgrades will also make sure that Ethereum remains adapted to the ever-changing nature of blockchain technology in the world.
The community has welcomed Ethereum 3.0 with open arms, with Ethereum researcher Justin Drake teasing ambitious plans for the upgrade. At events such as Devcon, full details for these plans will be unveiled, further fostering excitement about the project. One significant development is sharding, which has picked up momentum due to advancements in zero-knowledge technology.
However, there are still skeptics in the Ethereum camp who cannot be swayed by such highly ambitious propositions. The critics have cited that at the current extensive scale of size, changes take a long time to be developed. They point out that most of Ethereum's upgrades have taken considerable periods of time to be done. Similar proposals usually need formal Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) before they move on, thus, taking longer for the upgrades to become applicable.
Despite a lot of competition from other blockchain networks like Solana and BNB Chain, Ethereum keeps leading in terms of on-chain activity and usage of decentralized applications.
Success will no longer depend solely on Ethereum upgrades but rather on the future trajectory of the larger blockchain ecosystem. When upgraded successfully, Ethereum 3.0 will optimise and make the network simpler, which will reinforce its status as the leading platform for dApps.
Ethereum 3.0 is morphing to be one of the biggest upgrades in blockchain history, promising improvement in scalability, decentralization, and security. There's still a lot to be seen regarding the upgrade’s future. However, the Ethereum community provided a very solid foundation for the success of Ethereum 3.0.
