At the turn of the year, Vitalik Buterin, inventor of Ethereum (ETH), outlined the plans for 2024. Initially, the goal of reducing transaction fees will dominate. An upgrade called Dencun should help.
For Ethereum (ETH), the crypto year 2023 was one of the better ones. But founder Vitalik Buterin does not want to rest on his laurels and is already thinking ahead. In a blog post and with a series of posts on X, Buterin makes it clear what he believes Ethereum development work should focus on. The topic of transaction fees with ETH plays a central role. Here, the London upgrade, also known as EIP 1559, from late summer 2022 only partially delivered the desired results.
By popular demand, an updated roadmap diagram for 2023! pic.twitter.com/oxo58A2KuG
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 30, 2023
In his blog post entitled “Make Ethereum cyberpunk again”, Buterin recalls the original idea that the network should not only stand for finance, but also master applications such as messaging or social networks. However, this is not realistic with transaction fees, which can rise to over 100 US dollars for Ethereum in boom times. According to Buterin, these fees for ETH need to be reduced to less than 10 cents, or even better to less than 1 cent. He hopes that the upcoming Dencun (EIP 4844) upgrade will have an initial impact here, as layer-2 solutions will be integrated more deeply into the ecosystem, creating additional capacity.
Buterin had already addressed two other challenges for Ethereum several times in 2023. Because ETH staking has become popular, there are risks for decentralization. This also tends to result in vulnerabilities in the network, where certain interest groups could attempt censorship. Buterin hopes to be able to address these issues with further upgrades.
Conclusion: Buterin wants an Ethereum of a thousand applications
Buterin enjoys a high level of respect in the Ethereum community. However, it is also a fact that ETH investors mainly pay attention to developments in the price curve and are less interested in Buterin’s topics such as censorship resistance and decentralization. Buterin’s plans can therefore also be seen as a kind of wake-up call. Buterin fears that an Ethereum ecosystem that focuses more or less solely on financial applications will fail in the long term. His ace up his sleeve: Lower transaction fees on Ethereum would ultimately benefit all fields of application. Ethereum is therefore facing an exciting 2024, where investors should keep an eye on the practical effects of Upgrade Dencun, which could go live in the first quarter.
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