The Current Status and Future of Ethereum: Technology, Ecology, and Competition

Recently, two senior figures in the Ethereum ecosystem deeply discussed the current development status and future prospects of Ethereum. They started from their respective experiences in the industry and extended to various hot topics such as Ethereum's value, market competition, technological development, and ecosystem valuation.

The Core Value of Ethereum

It was pointed out in the discussion that the core value of Ethereum lies in its decentralized philosophy. Compared to other public chains, Ethereum places greater emphasis on promoting decentralization, even at the cost of funding the development of multiple clients. For users who care about decentralization, self-custody, and resistance to regulation, only Ethereum can truly address these challenges, aside from Bitcoin.

The Success of EVM and the Value of Ethereum Consensus Layer

The EVM has become the de facto standard in the industry, and the Ethereum Foundation still holds the power of discourse. Even if Ethereum is not the largest Layer 1, its control over the EVM standard gives it a tremendous influence and value in the industry. The success of the EVM lies in the accumulation of time and the largest amount of capital, with many smart contracts having stood the test of time and money.

In addition, Ethereum will separate the consensus layer and the execution layer, planning to introduce the concept of an Inclusion List, which will directly implement anti-transaction censorship features at the consensus layer. This will enhance Ethereum's resistance to censorship and bring significant value to the DeFi ecosystem.

The Future Direction of Layer2

The development of Layer 2 is an important expansion factor for Ethereum. However, the large number of Layer 2 solutions has led to a fragmentation of assets and liquidity. Whether Layer 2 will reduce and consolidate in the future to centralize liquidity and solve user experience issues is a question worth paying attention to.

The Ethereum Foundation and some researchers are promoting the Based Rollup/Native Rollup direction. While this solution is not a mandatory requirement at the protocol level, it considers decentralization, security, and user experience from an engineering implementation perspective.

Ethereum's Next Growth Point

For the next growth point of Ethereum, the discussants have proposed several possibilities:

1. Stablecoins: Expect to have algorithmic, partially collateralized, or fully collateralized currencies that are not pegged to the US dollar or any single value.

2. Social Applications: Although it is difficult to seize users from existing mainstream platforms, attempts like Farcaster are very valuable.

3. RWA( Real World Assets ): Many RWA assets have been minted on the Ethereum network, and new play styles may emerge in the future that could interact with traditional financial products.

4. Payment: Stablecoins are the largest payment scenario in the industry and have begun to play a role in actual trade and wage payments.

Ethereum Upgrade Decision Mechanism

The Ethereum development team has always prioritized decentralization, with its roadmap and updates being highly transparent. However, there is a disconnect in user and developer perception, as many features are defined by the client team. If more application developers, Layer 2 solutions, wallets, and other closely related infrastructure could participate more in the decision-making process, it would be more beneficial for ecological development.

The discussants believe that Ethereum may need a user growth-oriented department to establish KPIs for Layer 2, the mainnet, or developer growth. At the same time, there is a need to better communicate Ethereum's positive values to attract more startups and developers to join the ecosystem.