Ethereum 2024 Roadmap Update and EIP Improvement Proposal Preview

Ethereum roadmap update

On December 30, 2023, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared the 2024 Ethereum roadmap on X Social Web and detailed the upgrades and activities of the Ethereum network. According to the series of charts he listed, Ethereum’s continued focus in 2024 includes 6 main components: The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.

(1) The Merge was highlighted as a key part of the roadmap to maintain a simple and resilient POS Consensus Mechanism, which took place in September 2022 to merge EthereumMainnet with the POS beacon chain. Since the merge, the role of Single Slot Finality (SSF) will take precedence. SSF can make Ethereum Consensus Mechanism more efficient in validating Block, can be proposed and final Block ized in the same slot, reducing transaction delays. After Ethereum transitions from POW to POS Consensus Mechanism, Single Slot Finality (SSF) will serve as a key solution to Ethereum’s current weaknesses.

(2) The Surge aims to achieve throughput of 100,000 transactions per second across Ethereum and L2 networks while improving Blockchain scalability. The Cross-rollup standard and interop have been highlighted by the Ethereum development team as areas for long-term improvement, and this year will see significant progress on EIP-4844 and the scalability of the rollup itself.

(3) The Scourge focuses on mitigating risks associated with maximum extractable value (MEV), liquidity staking pools, and rollups to address concerns about economic centralization within the Ethereum ecosystem. Vitalik Buterin had earlier suggested dropping the cost of running a node to address the challenge. Currently, the Verkle tree is ready, and validating blocks will involve only downloading some bytes of data, performing some basic calculations, and validating concise, non-interactive knowledge arguments (SNARKs). The network will continue to explore the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) verification precompile to reach a fully SNARKIZED Ethereum network.

(4) The Verge aims to make Block Verification easier and improve the efficiency of Block Validation. As on-chain transaction volume continues to grow, this optimization is critical to maintaining Ethereum’s scalability. The roadmap removes the “increase L1 gas limit” so that the gas limit can be increased at any time, demonstrating a flexible approach to network capacity management.

(5) The Purge aims to make the protocol easy to use, making it more developer-friendly and accessible. This simplification will eliminate technical debt and limit network participation costs, which is expected to improve the overall functionality and usability of the Ethereum network.

(6) The Splurge encompasses all other elements that are critical to Ethereum’s growth, from ecosystem growth and sustainability to human coordination, demonstrating Ethereum’s commitment to nurturing and supporting its vibrant community.

EIP Improvement Proposal Preview

Ethereum will usher in the Dencun Hard Fork upgrade in the first quarter of 2024, and Ethereum core developers have drawn up a Dencun Hard Fork upgrade schedule. Without major issues, Ethereum’s public testnet network will tentatively follow the following schedule:

Goerli: January 17th

Sepolia: January 30

Holesky: February 7

This will be the last time Goerli will be included in a test scenario, as the network is about to be deprecated. The move, which is part of a strategy to activate Dencun on the Ethereum network in January 2024, marks a significant advance in its technical capabilities.

The core developers also discussed the Prague/Electra upgrade, which has yet to be specifically named. The Ethereum community is considering whether to focus on large core features (which could take a year of effort) or upgrade around multiple smaller improvements (which could be achieved in the second half of 2024).

Overall, 2024 will be the year for Ethereum to implement groundbreaking improvement proposals, and here are some of the improvements to look out for:

（1）EIP-4844 （Proto-Danksharding）

EIP-484 is the highlight of the many proposals for the Dencun upgrade, and is the most closely watched by the market, with the main aim of drop gas fees on the L2 network, especially for rollup solutions, without sacrificing Decentralization.

The Dencun upgrade will drop the cost of data availability for all L2s, which is something the market is very much looking forward to, as the cost to the end user will be further drop. EIP-4844 is a transformative enhancement proposal that is expected to drop gas fees by a factor of 100 for rollups.

(2) ERC-4337, ERC-6900 (Account Abstraction)

Account abstraction is also a very important improvement proposal, including ERC-4337 and its extension ERC-6900. Centered around the concept of smart accounts, account abstraction has a significant impact on the end-user experience and will dropTransaction Cost and secure social logins. ERC is a subset of EIPs that specifically target token standards in the Ethereum ecosystem. It defines the rules that the token will enforce to ensure interoperability. Unlike EIPs that modify the core protocol, ERC usually does not require a hard fork.

ERC-4337 will take place in March of this year, and the concept of account abstraction will bring important changes and key roles to end users. Account abstraction will revolutionize how users perceive and interact with crypto Wallets, making gas-free transactions the standard, while making secure social logins the new norm, fundamentally reshaping the user experience on Ethereum.

Traditionally, Ethereum has two account types: an external account controlled by a private key (EOA) and a code-controlled contract account. Account abstraction blurs this distinction, allowing users to create accounts that are more like Smart Contracts. It can enhance the user experience and security, and allow for more complex account logic, such as MultisigWallet or social recovery of lost Secret Key.

ERC-6900 introduces the concept of “delegated transactions”. The standard does not require changes to the MainnetConsensus of the Ethereum, and it allows users to delegate representatives to send transactions, for example, to approve a set of actions to save time and hassle.

(3) EIP-1153 (instantaneous storage Operation code)

EIP-1153 is part of the Dencun upgrade to introduce a new mechanism for handling temporary or transient storage during Smart Contract execution. Ethereum’s traditional storage operations are permanent and consume gas, which may be ineffective for temporary data that doesn’t need to last longer than a transaction. EIP-1153 is an Operation Code that will allow Smart Contract to use transient storage, i.e., store purge at the end of transaction execution.

The Uniswap team lobbied hard for EIP-1153 and wanted it to be implemented in the Shanghai upgrade, but failed to gain enough support to reach a consensus among Ethereum core developers. The upgrade is expected to play an important role in improving the capabilities and efficiency of the Uniswap V4 protocol.

By enabling ephemeral storage, EIP-1153 can drop gas costs associated with storing data during contract execution and provide developers with more flexibility in designing smart contracts. EIP-1153 also contributes to the overall scalability of the Ethereum network by reducing the burden of permanent storage and minimizing state bloat.

(4) EIP-4788 (Beacon Block Root Commit)

Ethereum is like a huge library, it has two main parts: the first part is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which acts like a reading room for people to read books (execute smart contracts), and the second part is the beacon chain, which tracks all books and their locations like a library’s catalog system (Ethereum network’s consensus and coordination).

Prior to EIP-4788, the operation of these two parts was relatively independent. The EVM does not have direct access to the most up-to-date catalog, and it must rely on indirect methods to understand what is happening in the beacon chain. Whereas, EIP-4788 proposes to put the beacon Block root (the hash tree root of the digest or parent block) into each EVM Block. It’s the equivalent of moving a library’s outdated card filing system (inefficient and inaccurate) to a system with real-time, accurate, and direct links to major databases.

In Ethereum, a modern library system, readers (EVMs) get instant updates every time a book is added, moved, or deleted (Beacon Chain update). Readers can trust the most up-to-date information obtained, and library operations (such as executing smart contracts) are more consistent with the overall catalog system (the state of the Consensus layer).

All of the above happens in a way that minimizes trust requirements, eliminating the need for an external Oracle Machine to provide this data, reducing potential failure or manipulation points. EIP-4788 introduces protocol-level Oracle Machine that communicates Ethereum’s Consensus state throughout Mainnet. This change is especially beneficial for liquidity staking protocols, such as Lido, as well as smart contract-based bridges and re-staking solutions, as it allows these protocols to access critical data such as validator balances and status directly from the consensus layer, improving their security and operational efficiency.

(5)EIP-5656 (MCOPY Operation Code)

The EVM operates using a set of Operation Codes that determine various operations. EIP-5656 introduces a new Operation Code called MCOPY, which Operation Code optimizes the process of copying data in memory during Smart Contract execution.

When using existing Operation Codes in the current EVM architecture, replicating large data segments is inefficient. MCOPY PROVIDES A MORE EFFICIENT WAY TO REDUCE THE GAS FEES ASSOCIATED WITH THESE OPERATIONS WHILE IMPROVING PERFORMANCE. Faster memory operations mean faster contract execution, and developers will have more tools to optimize their Smart Contracts, especially when dealing with large data structures or complex operations that involve memory operations.

(6)EIP-6780 (Limit Self-Destruct)

In the EthereumBlockchain, the self-destruct Operation Code allows Smart Contract to remove itself from the Blockchain. Once executed, it will delete the storage space for the contract code and state and send the remaining ETH of the contract to the specified Address. However, the feature led to several problems, including the complexity of state management and potential security breaches.

By limiting self-destruction, Ethereum can better manage its state scale, making the Blockchain more stable and predictable. This is critical for the long-term scalability and maintenance of the network, as it will simplify future Ethereum upgrades.

Taken together, Ethereum 2024 roadmap update and key EIP proposals demonstrate EthereumBlockchain’s adaptability to changes in the industry and clearly demonstrate a clear vision for robust operation and increased scalability. It is foreseeable that 2024 will be an important year for Ethereum to continue to explore innovation and technological upgrades and improvements.