Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled ‘The Splurge’, a comprehensive set of protocol upgrades aimed at addressing a variety of challenges within the Ethereum ecosystem. In his last blog post Titled ‘Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 6: The Splurge’, Buterin delves into the technical complexities of upcoming improvements that aim to propel Ethereum towards a more performant, secure and scalable future.
“The Splurge” is designed to address a collection of “little things” in the Ethereum protocol design that don’t fit neatly into existing upgrade categories. According to Buterin, these elements are “very valuable for the success of Ethereum” but require a specific focus due to their complexity and significance.
What is Ethereum’s ‘The Splurge’?
The Splurge’s key objectives include bringing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to a higher performing and stable ‘endgame state’, integrating account abstraction directly into the protocol to improve security and ease of use, optimize transaction fees to increase scalability while limiting risks. and exploring advanced cryptographic techniques to significantly improve Ethereum in the long term.
Buterin emphasizes the need to refine the EVM, stating that “the EVM is difficult to analyze statically today, making it challenging to create highly efficient implementations, formally verify code, and make further extensions over time .” The introduction of the EVM Object Format (EOF) is the first step in the EVM improvement roadmapscheduled for inclusion in the next hard fork. EOF introduces features such as the separation of code and data, disallowing dynamic jumps in favor of static jumps, removing gas observability within the EVM code, and the addition of an explicit subroutine mechanism.
EOF lays the foundation for further upgrades such as the EVM Modular Arithmetic Extensions (EVM-MAX) and the integration of Single-Instruction-Multiple-Data (SIMD) capabilities. These improvements are intended to make the EVM more efficient for advanced cryptographic operations without relying heavily on precompiles. “After EOF is introduced, it will be easier to introduce further upgrades,” Buterin notes.
Account abstraction has long been a goal for Ethereum, with the aim of allowing smart contract code to control transaction authentication. “At its core, account abstraction is simple: let transactions be initiated by smart contracts, not just EOAs,” Buterin explains. This capability could enable a range of applications, from quantum-resistant cryptography to seamless key rotation and improved wallet security.
ERC-4337 serves as a current solution for implementing account abstraction without changing the core protocol. It introduces a new object called ‘user operations’ and separates transaction processing into validation and execution phases. However, Buterin points out inefficiencies in this approach, particularly the “flat ~100k gas overhead per bundle.”
EIP-7702 is proposed to bring the convenience benefits of account abstraction to all users, including external accounts (EOAs), by integrating it directly into the protocol. This move could unify the ecosystem and eliminate the need for relayers in privacy protocols. “EIP-7702 makes the ‘convenience features’ of account abstraction available to all users today, including EOAs,” Buterin wrote.
While EIP-1559 has improved average block recording times and cost predictability, Buterin acknowledges imperfections in its implementation. He notes that “the formula is somewhat flawed” and “does not adapt quickly enough under extreme conditions.” The proposed EIP-7706 aims to address these issues by introducing multi-dimensional gas tariffs, allowing separate prices and limits for different resources, such as calling data, state read/write data, and state size expansion.
“Multi-dimensional gas has two major disadvantages: it adds complexity to the protocol and to the optimal algorithm required to completely fill a block,” Buterin explains. However, he suggests that the benefits in efficiency and resource management could outweigh this complexity.
The introduction of Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs) aims to improve the randomness in the Ethereum proposal selection process. “Ideally, we would find a more robust source of randomness,” Buterin says. VDFs could provide a solution by providing output that is computationally intensive to produce but easy to verify, reducing the chance of tampering. Challenges remain, such as ‘unexpected optimization’ through hardware acceleration or parallelization. “Currently, there is no VDF construction that fully satisfies Ethereum researchers on all axes,” Buterin admits, indicating that further research and development is needed.
Additionally, Buterin explores the “far future of cryptography” by discussing advanced concepts such as indistinguishability obfuscation and one-time signatures. He lists these as part of the “Egyptian God Protocols,” extremely powerful cryptographic primitives that could revolutionize blockchain technology. Indistinguishability obfuscation allows the creation of “coded programs” that perform arbitrary calculations while hiding internal details. “With obfuscation and one-time signatures, we can build almost perfect, reliable third parties,” Buterin claims.
Possible applications include security DAOs and auctions, universal trusted settings, and simplified verification of zero-knowledge proofs. Despite their promise, these technologies are still in their infancy. “There is still a lot to do,” Buterin admits. Implementations of indistinguishability obfuscation currently face significant performance hurdles, and practical quantum computers that enable one-time signatures remain theoretical.
By addressing EVM improvements, account abstraction, transaction fee optimization, and exploring the frontiers of cryptography, Buterin aims to keep Ethereum at the forefront of blockchain innovation. While he acknowledges the complexity and tradeoffs that come with it, he remains optimistic. “Extremely powerful cryptography could completely change the game,” he concludes.
At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $2,627.
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