Ethereum (ETH -0.12%) co-founder Vitalik Buterin is proposing an intriguing new vision for Ethereum, saying in an essay published on Sept. 27 that it should become a "cryptographic world computer" by 2030.
In the essay, he describes a chain that does far more work and operates far more privately than it does today. But what exactly is Buterin getting at with his "world computer" comment, and would it create more demand for Ethereum if his vision were brought to life in the next few years?
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The plan calls for scaling throughput to new heights
First, let's go over the principle of what Buterin is envisioning. In short, every computer that's responsible for checking the Ethereum network's stream of new transactions is currently required to locally rerun every one of those transactions to confirm its validity before reporting the results back to the network.
Buterin called Hegota, next year’s fork, likely Ethereum’s last "normal" one, with everything after it built on recursive proofs, optimized consensus, and quantum-safe cryptography.
The proposed new design would replace much of that process with a different one that uses a type of cryptographic proof called zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, which are short mathematical receipts that are much faster to verify than the current method. One big advantage of using these ZK proofs is that they'd let many computers split the work and check each other's results.
Reworking the chain to handle ZK proofs is a major undertaking. The essay builds on the Strawmap, an Ethereum Foundation draft that outlines seven upgrades planned for 2029. At the end of that stretch, the network aims to achieve a throughput of up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), with built-in privacy features and quantum-computer-proof security for the transaction signing process.
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What might this mean for the price of Ethereum?
Network upgrades tend to boost Ethereum's price mainly by enabling more activity on the chain, though the gains tend to accumulate over time rather than upon the launch of a new package. The planned additions from the roadmap, including Buterin's new approach, could support the price if usage and fees grow with capacity, even if the benefits aren't immediate.
But one unavoidable truth here is that the new machinery could also break things that are currently working, which, generally speaking, is a problem that Ethereum has had repeatedly throughout its existence.
In theory, Ethereum's new ZK proofs shouldn't cause the chain's transaction fees to rise, at least not as currently envisioned. Developing cybersecurity measures against quantum computers will be riskier, as quantum-secure cryptographic signatures are vastly larger than the older (and someday quantum-vulnerable) ones currently in use. In a nutshell, implementing those quantum-secure signatures may substantially increase fees and reduce the number of transactions that fit in each block.
The other side of the coin is that if the plan mostly lands, Ethereum will be a more capable network than ever before, making it much more valuable. And while there's some substantial risk here, I'm willing to bet that, in the long run, the positive outcome will prevail, as the chain has, in the past, managed to work out its technical problems, even if it sometimes takes a while.
