During a recent keynote address at Nanyang Technological College in Singapore, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, gave a direct assessment of the main problems with blockchain technology and the progress made to solve them. Buterin focused his address on four issues that continue to plague Ethereum: scalability, privacy, and consensus. He stressed that these issues haven’t changed in the preceding six years.
By implementing zero-knowledge proofs like zk-SNARKs in 2017, Ethereum once again made significant progress towards strengthening privacy. In 2023, Ethereum will have made significant strides in this area. The Ethereum landscape includes advanced technologies like STARK, Zero-Information rollups, and Cairo. The developer came to the conclusion that privacy remains a priority, primarily due to issues with authorization and acceptance surrounding tokens created using privacy-preserving techniques, as demonstrated by the Twister Money case.
Proof-of-innocence is a method of validating tokens inside of privacy techniques without disclosing the origins of the transaction that Buterin proposed. This concept highlights the value of confidentiality and current work to improve zk-SNARKs for seamless integration into mainstream finance.
Centralized control and hacking
Ethereum has fully accepted a consensus mechanism as it shifts to consensus safety, but issues still exist. These include expediting participation, eliminating centralization concerns, and simplifying the protocol, particularly through proof of stake.
Since 2017, there have been significant advancements in the area of smart contract safety. In 2023, Ethereum has achieved significant advancements in this field. Because of the infamous DAO hack, Buterin made a point of claiming that hacking incidences have substantially dropped in frequency. Increased awareness and better safety protocols within the Ethereum community have been crucial in reducing risk.
In general, Vitalik Buterin’s keynote address provided insightful insight into Ethereum‘s development over the years. His address was intended to show how Ethereum deals with practical solutions, widespread acceptance, and expanding user benefits while acknowledging ongoing hurdles.
