Ethereum scaling won’t happen for years, according to Vitalik Buterin, it’s co-founder. Ethereum scaling won’t happen – do you think it will?
“Base-layer scalability for applications is only coming as the last major phase of eth2, which is still years away,” he said.
Buterin proposes focusing intently on layer methods – once Ethereum goes full Proof-Of-Stake in phase 1.5, Buterin said:
“If you are not convinced to go ‘all the way’ on the ‘phase 1.5 and done’ direction, there is a natural compromise path to take: having a small number of execution shards (eg. 4-8) and many more data shards.”
He would like to see layer 2 protocols should be built into the wallet. This is similar to what MetaMask And Status has on cross-L2 transfers.
He effectively argues second layer methods can somehow become part of the protocol itself stating “eth1 clients could be repurposed as optimistic rollup clients.”
The complication lies in which layer two protocol is used – cross linking L2’s should be difficult to impossible. L2’s would help with the issue of double-spending that happens – the L2’s would help in a scalable way in how they keep accounts within their network.
L2’s are used in the Bitcoin Lightning Network, but doesn’t see much use – just $12 million. Many L2’s do live on the Ethereum blockchain, but doesn’t see much action in popular DAPPS on the Ethereum network.
The suggestion of phase 1.5 is also curious because what isn’t said is just as important – the implication may be taken that sharding may be difficult to implement for ETH2.0.
Just how long it’ll take phase 1.5 to be complete is not clear, but Buterin’s comments can be taken as an attempt to encourage adoption of the L2 method by the ecosystem.
“I do think it’s important to note that at least in the short term, as far as I can tell we have no choice,” Buterin said, adding:
“The L1 is nearly unusable for many classes of applications, and there’s no non-L2 path that can get us to scalability in the short-to-medium term.”
What do you think? Let us know on our Facebook page!
