Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has added a new category of milestones to the Ethereum technical roadmap. The category aims to improve censorship resistance and decentralization of the Ethereum network.
The updated version includes a new phase called “The Scourge.” The update shared on Twitter improved the previous 5-phase Ethereum roadmap, which explains how the network will achieve scalability.
Buterin explained that the new roadmap brings more concrete milestones to every category and a “More explicit role for quantum-proofness as a necessary component of the “endgame” protocol.
Ethereum Phase Update
The update has six phases:
The Merge
The Surge
The Scourge
The Verge
The Purge
The Splurge
The Merge initiation happened in September, with the transition to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. However, the second stage of the Merge will be about single-slot finality.
The next phase is the Surge, where scalability solutions are expected to start. With the Surge, the goal is to improve network performance on Ethereum. Currently, the network process is between 10 and 20 TPS, but the Surge, when completed, could increase that to 100,000.
The Scourge, an addition to the roadmap, comes next. According to the Ethereum roadmap, the goal of the Scourge is to “ensure reliable and credibly neutral transaction inclusion.
Additionally, it helps avoid centralization and other protocol risks from MEV.” MEV issues on Ethereum involve using bots to exploit network transactions, leading to congestion and high fees.
This allows miners to duplicate all winning deals from the mempool and execute their transactions ahead of arbitrage seekers or anyone attempting to profit.
As a result, Ethereum has become associated with a higher degree of centralization and censorship following its transition to proof-of-stake.
Another update is to the fourth phase, the Verge. It will now focus on verification and not just “Verkle trees.” Buterin explained that the endgame of the phase is fully SNARKed Ethereum.
SNARKs will add much-needed privacy-preserving features to the Ethereum network while allowing for traceable anonymous transactions.
Other Notable Additions
Buterin also notes that there will be an implementation of a “more explicit role for quantum-proofs.” This would be in various stages of the Ethereum roadmap as a necessary component of the “endgame” protocol.
The full details of the Scourge have not been released yet. However, previous posts by Buterin hint at what it could include, such as a “Partial Block Auction” solution where an ab block builder is only permitted to decide some of the contents of the block. As a result, decreasing their level of influence.
Proposals designed to combat censorship at the consensus layer have also been submitted, including the Single Unifying Auctions for Value Expression (SUAVE) solution that was put forward by the Ethereum research and development company Flashbots.
Various Reactions to the Move
There have been mixed reactions to the update. Some BTC maxis used the new update as an opportunity to say Bitcoin was better and ETH was being over-engineered, but the Ethereum community reacted positively to the development.
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