Ethereum, the second most famous cryptocurrency on the market, became notorious due to its impressive community and frequent updates. While it was designed after Bitcoin, Ethereum is something more of a tool rather than only a store of value.
The blockchain improved itself continuously, which has eventually affected the Ethereum price since the network received more media coverage than ever.
One of the latest Ethereum updates is in regard to resilience, a component vital for security. If the blockchain stays resilient no matter the challenges, it can protect itself from any kind of cyber-attacks. This means the network has to change the way it handles competing blocks and improve its speed.
Many other challenges must be solved for the blockchain to function properly without bias, from defending against censorship to protecting validators and against attacks. With the latest update, all these difficulties can be tackled.
What is the DVT update?
DVT comes from distributed validator technology, and it implies prioritizing the high number of validators on the blockchain whose job is to confirm transactions. As of 2023, Ethereum has around 606,947 validators who are susceptible to becoming a point of failure or being subject to slashing, which means they’re not operating for extended periods.
The idea behind the update is for validators to become decentralized, which is doable by splitting a validator’s private key across node operators, which helps distribute the responsibilities of a validator among more actors, bringing in more efficiency.
This was already showcased in the 2021 roadmap that Vitalik Buterin posted, highlighting some of the most important updates, such as the Verge of the Purge. Among these aspects, DVT was also briefly discussed as essential in Ethereum’s trajectory. This milestone has yet to make some changes within the network, considering that the blockchain is still in its first era, the Merge.
Before moving into the next stage, Ethereum has to tackle the Obol and SSV aspects of the upgrade. Obol Network will be responsible for paving the way for DVT to deploy since it enables the distribution of validators across operators.
Both Obol and SSV perceive validators working on a single node as a point of failure because, in the case of a lack of online availability, the validators cannot propose blocks and attest to them, which hinders the blockchain’s productivity.
Why increased Ethereum resiliency is so important
The resilience of the crypto market makes it possible for digital coins to gain genuine value and the blockchain to provide solutions for the real world. Currently, the Ethereum blockchain has reached its level of security that it can be used to offer access to financial services, track supply chains and monitor management productivity.
Ethereum went through difficult times when the prices were underwhelming, and the blockchain could barely support the increasing number of users on the network. However, with the right implementation and the community’s involvement, Ethereum became one of the most resilient digital assets and tools. This means that it can become a reliable solution for individuals and companies, and regardless of the challenges, Ethereum can come up with a plan to further improve its functions.
For example, when Ethereum used to work on the PoW consensus mechanism, the community and Buterin noticed the need for development as the network was congested all the time, and transactions were slower than ever. Then, with considerable effort, Ethereum switched to PoS, which is currently one of the most efficient solutions, and therefore solved one of its biggest problems.
The Beacon Chain contributed to increased resilience
The Beacon Chain is what introduced Ethereum to PoS and was shipped in 2020. Since then, the update worked on coordinating the network’s stakers before validating blocks. This means the Beacon Chain mainly handles blocks and attestations or managing rewards rather than processing transactions.
The impact of the Beacon Chain changed the blockchain forever. It introduced staking, increasing the network’s security and improved mining by offering staking options, which don’t require users to invest in expensive computational power.
At the same time, the update got the ground ready for sharding, which also allowed the network split into shard chains that minimized the load of the network by distributing it accordingly. The final goal of sharding is to increase the transaction throughput so that the network supports a number of at least 100.000 TPS.
Future Ethereum updates worth following
Ethereum’s ecosystem is constantly challenged, which is why the designed roadmap includes plenty of other approaches to tackle each important matter. After the Shangai update that released staked ether withdrawals and the Bedrock one, whose goal was to decrease transaction fees, the ZK-rollup race would leverage complex cryptography processes to favor developers.
Besides these awaited updates, the roadmap also includes the following:
- The Verge intends to decrease the amount of information that validators are required to store on their machines through the help of Verkle trees. This complex concept will allow for an upgraded environment where validators won’t have to store data before verifying blocks, which will decrease the need for expensive computational power;
- The Purge is set to remove outdated network history that isn’t necessary anymore and just hinders the blockchain’s productivity. The Purge will also eliminate the technical debt of the Ethereum protocol, lowering hardware requirements for node operators;
- The Splurge is the ultimate update on the roadmap and will include small fixtures that still need to be tackled but are not to be avoided. Their purpose is to allow the network to work smoothly. Vitalik Buterin stated that this update would include fun stuff to explore but would operate only after the complex challenges are solved.
Bottom line
Ethereum blockchain is among some of the most efficient digital environments at the moment because it’s in continuous development. The network’s features are highly demanded, eventually increasing bandwidth and affecting congestion, later boosting transaction fees and making it more difficult for users to navigate the ecosystem. Therefore, the founder of the blockchain provided a thorough roadmap of upcoming updates that will make Ethereum the best blockchain ever.
