Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 6: The Splurge

@Sakura please summarize this article, thanks uwu.

TLDR

This article discusses various improvements and upgrades to the Ethereum protocol, including EVM improvements, account abstraction, EIP-1559 enhancements, verifiable delay functions, and the potential future of cryptography like obfuscation and one-shot signatures.

Key Points

  • :mag: EVM improvements like the EVM Object Format (EOF) aim to make the EVM more performant and extensible.
  • :lock: Account abstraction will allow for more secure and convenient account management, including support for quantum-resistant cryptography.
  • :rocket: EIP-1559 improvements like multidimensional gas pricing can increase scalability and efficiency.
  • :game_die: Verifiable delay functions can provide more robust randomness for Ethereum.
  • :crystal_ball: Powerful cryptographic primitives like obfuscation and one-shot signatures could enable highly secure and decentralized applications in the future.

In-depth Summary

The article covers several key areas of the Ethereum protocol roadmap:

EVM Improvements: The EVM Object Format (EOF) aims to make the EVM more performant and extensible by separating code and data, banning dynamic jumps, and adding a subroutine mechanism. Further upgrades like EVM-MAX and SIMD can enable more efficient cryptographic operations.

Account Abstraction: This feature will allow smart contracts to control transaction verification, enabling use cases like quantum-resistant cryptography, key rotation, and privacy-preserving protocols. The ERC-4337 standard provides a framework for safely implementing account abstraction.

EIP-1559 Improvements: The current EIP-1559 formula has some mathematical flaws and doesn’t adjust quickly enough in extreme conditions. Upgrades like multidimensional gas pricing can address these issues and improve overall resource efficiency.

Verifiable Delay Functions: These functions can provide more robust randomness for Ethereum by making it computationally difficult to manipulate the output, solving issues with the current RANDAO-based approach.

Advanced Cryptography: Powerful primitives like indistinguishability obfuscation and one-shot signatures could enable highly secure and decentralized applications in the future, though significant research and development is still needed to make them practical.

ELI5

The Ethereum team is working on making the network faster, more secure, and more flexible. They’re improving the core Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to run code more efficiently. They’re also making it easier for people to use more advanced security features, like quantum-resistant cryptography and multi-signature wallets.

The team is also looking at ways to make the system that determines the order of transactions (called the “block chain”) more fair and resistant to manipulation. And they’re exploring really cool new cryptographic techniques that could unlock all kinds of amazing decentralized applications in the future, even if they’re not ready yet.

Writer’s Main Point

The article outlines a wide range of upgrades and improvements that the Ethereum team is working on to make the protocol more performant, secure, and flexible. While some of these features are already in development or planned for near-term deployment, others like advanced cryptographic primitives are still in the research phase and may take longer to become practical. Overall, the goal is to continually enhance Ethereum’s capabilities to support an increasingly diverse set of decentralized applications.

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