The Development History and Future Prospects of Ethereum

Recently, two senior figures in the Ethereum ecosystem engaged in an in-depth discussion about the past, present, and future development of Ethereum. They began by sharing their respective experiences in the industry, extending to multiple hot topics such as the value of Ethereum, market competition, technological development, and ecosystem valuation.

Connecting with Ethereum: From Mining to the DeFi Wave

Two guests shared their experiences of entering the blockchain industry. One had come into contact with Bitcoin as early as 2011, but only fully committed to Ethereum during the ICO boom of 2017. The other initially got involved in Bitcoin mining, then returned to the industry due to EOS, and eventually rejoined the Ethereum ecosystem after the DeFi Summer.

The Value of Ethereum: Decentralization First

It was mentioned in the discussion that the core value of Ethereum lies in its decentralized philosophy. Compared to other public chains, Ethereum places greater emphasis on promoting decentralization, sparing no expense to fund the development of multiple clients. For users who care about decentralization, self-custody, and resistance to regulation, Ethereum is the best choice after Bitcoin.

The Role and Challenges of the Ethereum Foundation

The Ethereum Foundation, as a non-profit organization, mainly invests funds in research areas such as ZK, client development, Ethereum 3.0 exploration, and cryptography research. In contrast, there is relatively little direct assistance for application developers. This is related to Ethereum's original design philosophy, which is not an application-centric project.

The Success of EVM and the Value of Ethereum's Consensus Layer

The success of EVM lies in the accumulation of time and the maximum amount of capital. Many smart contracts have withstood the test of time and money, which is hard for other ecosystems to compare. The value of the Ethereum consensus layer lies in its ability to promote decentralization and provide secure outputs. In the future, there may be other public chains that will delegate consensus to the Ethereum consensus layer.

The Future Direction of Layer2

Discussed the relationship between Layer 2 and Ethereum, as well as potential future development directions. Some believe that Rollup-based Layer 2 could be the next growth point for Ethereum. It also explored the alignment issue between Layer 2 and Ethereum (Alignment).

Future Growth Points of Ethereum

The guests discussed several potential areas for future growth of Ethereum:

1. Stablecoin: Looking forward to the emergence of new types of stablecoins that are not pegged to the US dollar.
2. Social Applications: Decentralized social networks such as Farcaster.
3. RWA( Real World Assets ): Connecting traditional financial assets with the crypto world
4. Payment: The application of stablecoins in cross-border trade and other fields

Ethereum Upgrade Decision Mechanism

The decision-making mechanism for the Ethereum upgrade was discussed, noting that while the current mechanism has high transparency, it is somewhat disconnected from the needs of users and developers. It is suggested to involve more application developers, Layer2, wallets, and other relevant parties in the decision-making process.

Conclusion

Both guests expressed their expectations for the future of Ethereum and hope to contribute to its development. They called for more practitioners and developers to pay attention to and participate in the construction of the Ethereum ecosystem to jointly promote its healthy development.