Ethereum Roadmap Updated: Details On Vitalik Buterin’s New Plans

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveils an updated Ethereum roadmap on Saturday, November 5. Buterin plans to introduce several changes to the post-Merge Ethereum to mitigate censorship, block verification, centralization, and other issues. Here’s the breakdown of each phase, including features and milestones.

Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum Roadmap

With the successful transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism with “The Merge” phase, Ethereum has taken the path to evolve into a deflationary crypto asset. While Ethereum supply has increased by 2.5K after the Merge, the rate has indeed slowed as compared to ETH issuance before the Merge.

Moreover, Ethereum censorship concerns have increased post-Merge. In fact, the minting of OFAC-compliant blocks has reached 73% in the last 24 hours. Vitalik expects single slot finality as the new “stage 2 Merge” milestone.

“The Surge” phase includes EIP-4844 and Danksharding, rollups, and zkEVM. Ethereum aims to improve scalability and capacity, supporting 100,000 transactions per second. Moreover, the milestones include “Basic rollup scaling” and “Full rollup scaling”.

“The Scourge” phase focuses on censorship resistance. The goal is to ensure reliable and credibly neutral transaction inclusion and avoid centralization and other protocol risks from MEV. In fact, Ethereum block production will be based on inclusion lists or alternative selection mechanisms. Also, Proposer/builder separation (PBS) specifications and MEV burn are included. The milestone in the new phase is “In-protocol PBS”.

“The Verge” phase now brings “verification” for making verifying blocks super easy using SNARKs. Users download bytes of data, perform basic computations, and verify a SNARK to establish proof. Earlier, Vitalik Buterin introduced only “verkle trees” to make Ethereum more efficient in storage and allow a smaller node size. Moreover, it prepares the blockchain with STARKs for quantum-resistant advantages. The endgame is “fully SNARKed Ethereum.”

“The Purge” phase simplifies the protocol by requiring clients to discard older data. However, this needs solutions to store legacy data. The goal is to eliminate technical debt and limit the costs of participating in the network. Simplifying gas mechanics, EIP-4444, and base state expiry specifications are some highlights. Moreover, the milestones are “History expiry (EIP-4444)” and “State expiry”.

“The Splurge” phase focuses on better user experience, greater security, and more flexibility. Also, it includes Endgame EVM, Endgame EIP-1559, and Endgame account abstraction.

Will ETH Price Soars Amid Deflationary Approach?

Ethereum price has turned deflationary after the Merge due to the EIP-1559 burning mechanism. The ETH price fell below $2,000 after the protocol transitioned to PoS consensus. In fact, Vitalik Buterin earlier confirmed that Ethereum’s price will rally under specific conditions, as the Ethereum phases complete specific developments.

Meanwhile, traders and validators await the Shanghai update that will bring Ethereum liquidity as staked Ethereum withdrawals become valid. The ETH price is currently trading over $1650.