A crypto roadmap is a checklist containing all the outlined details of a project’s goals and objectives, including the time when they intend to achieve these goals. The same applies to the Ethereum network, which includes many upgrades that are expected to make the network more functional, efficient, and user-friendly.
Since its founding in 2015, Ethereum has grown impressively, becoming the home of some of the most prominent decentralized applications (DApps) and projects. Despite being one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies, only second to Bitcoin, Ethereum still has a lot to implement, especially about its roadmap. In this article, we look into the phases of development in the Ethereum Roadmap and the EIPs that will be implemented in 2024.
What’s the Ethereum Roadmap?
The Ethereum roadmap for 2024 was unveiled on Twitter, now X, on December 30, 2023, by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The purpose of revealing this roadmap was to provide insights into the upgrades and activities for the Ethereum network in 2024. Judging from the details of the roadmap, The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge will be the major focus of Ethereum developers for the year. Below, we will discuss the purpose of each of the phases of the 2024 Ethereum roadmap in detail.
- The Merge
While transitioning from proof-of-work network to proof-of-stake happened in 2022, the Merge is part of the roadmap in 2024 that has been completed.
- The Surge
The Surge is the second part of the roadmap with the objective of scaling Ethereum to handle over 100,000 transactions per second. Proto-dank sharding, i.e., the EIP-4844, is a major EIP that will contribute to achieving this objective, together with the integrations of L2 solutions to make the network faster and reduce gas costs.
- The Scourge
The Scourge is another part of the roadmap that tries to address the centralization concerns that come with operating on the PoS consensus mechanism. The principal objective of this phase is to fight any form of economic centralization, especially in liquid staking.
- The Verge
The focus of The Verge stage is to enhance the security, effectiveness, and efficiency of data storage and retrieval within the Ethereum blockchain. Apparently, they will do this by bringing Verkle trees into use on Ethereum and also using SNARK proofs to make node operations easier and computation lighter.
- The Purge
As the name suggests, The Purge also aims to reduce the negative elements and vulnerabilities that are still affecting the Ethereum network. The focus will be on streamlining the network’s functionality, reducing the cost of network participation, and cutting down technical debt.
- The Splurge
In this phase of the Ethereum roadmap, all efforts will go into fine-tuning the blockchain, and this will happen after all the major upgrades have been applied to the network.
2024 Ethereum Roadmap: EIPs
Below, we will discuss some of the Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that will be implemented in 2024 and what they will achieve.
- EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding)
EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) is a major component of the Ethereum Dencun upgrade, and its primary objective is to reduce gas fees users pay. Furthermore, another thing to expect from the implementation of this EIP is the reduction in data availability costs across all L2s. Also, for comparison’s sake, the EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) should help to reduce rollup fees by about 100%.
- ERC-4337, ERC-6900 (Account Abstraction)
ERCs (Ethereum Request for Comments) is a subset of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that focuses on improving interoperability by targeting token standardization. Another important difference between EIPs and ERCs is that the former modifies the core protocol while the latter doesn’t require a hard fork. ERC-4337 is the primary proposal in this case, while ERC-6900 is the extension, as the two aim at enhancing the security of social logins and reducing transaction fees.
March 2024 was the time slated for the implementation of ERC-4337, and its implications or results will be mainly centred on account abstraction. The objective of this account abstraction was to reshape the experience of Ethereum users by securing social logins, improving interactions with crypto wallets, and reducing gas fees. On the other hand, ERC-6900 will lead to the introduction of “delegated transactions,” which will allow users to send and approve a set of transactions on their behalf.
- EIP-1153 (Transient Storage Opcodes)
EIP-1153 is also part of the Ethereum Dencun upgrade, which introduces a new mechanism for handling temporary or transient storage during smart contract execution. Traditional storage operations in Ethereum are usually inefficient for storing temporary data, which EIP-1153 aims to solve. Some of the benefits Ethereum users will get after the implementation of this upgrade are reducing the burden of permanent storage, flexibility in designing smart contracts, and improved scalability on the Ethereum network.
- EIP-4788 (Beacon Block Root Commits)
The Ethereum network is majorly made up of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Beacon Chain, and the two work independently, making the EVM rely on indirect methods to understand what is happening on the Beacon Chain. So, the EIP-4788 proposes to eliminate the reliance on external oracles by integrating the beacon block root into each EVM block. One of the benefits of this EIP is enhanced operational efficiency, allowing liquid staking protocols to access validator statuses from the consensus layer.
- EIP-5656 (MCOPY Opcode)
EIP-5656 introduces a new opcode named MCOPY on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling the optimization of the transfer of data during the execution of smart contracts. Furthermore, the EIP-5656 enhances performance by providing developers with the right tools to optimize smart contracts, faster execution of smart contracts, and the reduction of gas fees associated with copying large data.
- EIP-6780 (Restrict SELFDESTRUCT)
EIP-6780’s significant impact will be on smart contracts as it will allow the implementation of the SELFDESTRUCT opcode, making smart contracts delete themselves from the blockchain. The benefit of this EIP is that it will allow the Ethereum network to manage its size better, leading to stability.
Rounding Off on the Ethereum Roadmap
The Ethereum roadmap is filled with developmental objectives that will make the Ethereum network better and more efficient for users. The roadmap propounded by Vitalik Buterin includes some of the major milestones: the Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.
Furthermore, the objectives in each phase of the Ethereum roadmap can’t be reached without implementing Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) or ERCs (Ethereum Request for Comments). Some of the EIPs and ERCs set for 2024 in the Ethereum roadmap include EIP-4844, ERC-4337, ERC-6900, EIP-4844, and many others.
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