Written by: The DeFi Investor
Compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow
In today's cryptocurrency market, the Ethereum ecosystem has been one of the most active and popular projects. However, more innovations and breakthroughs are needed to achieve mass adoption. 2023 will be a pivotal inflection point, with six important factors that will push Ethereum and its Layer 2 scaling closer to mass adoption. Let's take a look at what these factors are.
1. Eigenlayer mainnet launch
Eigenlayer is one of the most innovative projects I've found recently. It can be seen as a $ETH re-staking solution. Using Eigenlayer, Ethereum validators will be able to secure multiple networks/protocols simultaneously.
A good way to measure the security of a PoS chain is to look at the total value of tokens locked by validators, the higher the value, the more expensive the attack.
Because of this, Ethereum is one of the most secure L1s, so other protocols may be interested in renting security from it. In short, Eigenlayer is building a marketplace where ETH node operators can choose to offer their services for an additional fee. They can even validate networks such as sidechains or even non-EVM networks. Bad actors will have their locked ETH slashed.
From L1 and L2 to oracles and bridges, any project can take advantage of Eigenlayer's technology. Mantle, an upcoming Ethereum L2 modular design project, is one of the data availability solutions that will use EigenLayer.
The Eigenlayer mainnet is expected to launch in the third quarter.
2. Ethereum Shanghai upgrade
The upcoming Ethereum upgrade has sparked huge interest in liquid staking derivatives. Shanghai will enable $ETH staking withdrawals and other small changes. However, this may not trigger the massive $ETH sell-off that many expect.
This upgrade will set up a withdrawal queue, preventing everyone from getting their staked ETH back at once. Also, it appears that less than 50% of $ETH stakers are in profit, so a massive $ETH dump is unlikely.
The Shanghai upgrade is expected to take place in April 2023.
3. Optimism Bedrock Upgrade
The Arbitrum Nitro upgrade significantly lowered Arbitrum's gas fees and helped it gain more traction. Now it's Optimism's turn.
Optimism Bedrock launches May 2022. It is described as the cheapest and fastest Rollup architecture. Once live, users should expect lower average transaction fees on Optimism while deposits are faster. Additionally, it will allow Optimism to incorporate ZK proofs, making it even more secure.
Launch time: Q2 2023.
4. Arbitrum Stylus Upgrade
Do you think the Arbitrum team is just taking a break after launching this year $ARB? Not so, the next major Arbitrum upgrade is called Stylus. Stylus will allow the deployment of programs written in the most popular programming languages.
That's right, Arbitrum will be the first L2 to support multiple programming languages, such as Rust and C++. Among other things, it will make Arbitrum more scalable.
Start time: 2023.
5. zkEVMs
The official mainnet launch of the first zkEVMs is finally about to become a reality. zkEVMs is an EVM-compatible/equivalent Ethereum scaling solution that uses ZK proofs to verify transactions. Developers can deploy Ethereum smart contracts directly on these scaling solutions.
ZK Rollups are considered to be safer and more efficient than Optimistic Rollups. zksync and Polygon have launched the first zkEVMs mainnet, but this is just the beginning.
Consensys and Taiko are also expected to launch their zkEVMs mainnet later this year.
6. Proto-danksharding
Proto-danksharding is another major Ethereum upgrade expected to be ready later this year. It will introduce a new transaction type to Ethereum, drastically reducing L2 transaction fees.
This will make Ethereum L2 more scalable and make it more suitable for retail investors. Originally, this upgrade was planned to be rolled out on the same day as the Shanghai upgrade. But since staking withdrawals are the main task, the plan has been postponed until the fall.
Personally, I am most looking forward to the Proto-danksharding upgrade, and the transaction fee of $0.3 is still high to use L2. For Ethereum L2 to be accessible to everyone, fees must be below $0.05.
