The year 2023 was eventful for Ethereum. We notably witnessed the finalization of Proof of Stake with the deployment of the Shanghai hard fork. With the transition to the new year, Vitalik Buterin published a revised version of the Ethereum roadmap, so that we can see more clearly the future developments on the network.
Ethereum: a new roadmap for 2024
Launched in 2015, the Ethereum network continues to grow and evolve year after year. Thus, in November 2022, Vitalik Buterin had published a new roadmap for the project after the deployment of The Merge.
Following significant demand from the community, Buterin has published just before the start of the new year, an update of this roadmap.
This is always composed of 6 steps. Namely The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge and The Splurge. While the first stage, The Merge, was finalized at the start of 2023 with the deployment of Shanghai, developers are now at the heart of The Surge.
This development arc focuses on second layer solutions and more particularly rollups. So, The Surge aims to enable rollups to reach 100,000 transactions per second.
This will notably involve the deployment of the Cancun Deneb hard fork, which will introduce the long-awaited EIP-4844. This hard fork could take place at the earliest at the end of next February.
Ethereum: where are we?
While this new roadmap provides a better understanding of the direction Ethereum is taking, it also provides an update on current development progress.
Therefore, the details on the implementation of EIP-4844 and the developments in rollup scaling have been modified. Buterin thus indicates progress in these areas.
In addition, a simplification of the subsections related to Data Availability Sampling and zkEVMs. This demonstrates the progress made in the field since the publication of the last roadmap in 2022.
Indeed, the Data Availability layer landscape has evolved significantly. We can notably cite the work carried out by protocols such as Celestia Or Eigenlayer.
Other minor changes were made to the roadmap here and there, for different stages of development. There is a good chance that these steps will change again in the future, in light of developments that will be made thus far.
Indeed, these solutions will take on their full meaning after the deployment of the Cancun Deneb hard fork. This should increase the performance of rollups. The latter have already experienced a year 2023 rich in developments and should once again be at the center of attention in 2024.