The majority of the issues with the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake (PoS) design may be resolved most simply by addressing the role of single slot finality (SSF), according to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum 2024 roadmap was released by the company’s inventor, Vitalik Buterin, who acknowledged that there haven’t been many changes from the previous year.
Buterin describes the six primary components that Ethereum will continue to focus on in 2024 in a series of articles on X, the old Twitter. Furthermore, Buterin expanded on these six elements—the merging, surge, scourge, verge, purge, and splurge—in a comprehensive chart complete with notes and pictures.
He noted that there are only a few small changes from 2023’s timeline as Ethereum’s technological path becomes more apparent:
“There have been comparatively few changes as Ethereum’s technical future continues to solidify.”
With the goal of preserving a straightforward and durable proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus, the Merge was emphasised as a crucial component of the roadmap.
The Merge, which combined the proof-of-stake blockchain Beacon Chain with the Ethereum mainnet, happened in September 2022. The switch from a power-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS) led to a considerable decrease in the network’s overall energy usage, which was the most notable observation on Ethereum after the merging.
He also mentioned the advancements of the single slot finality (SSF) of Ethereum. In order to guarantee that modifications to a blockchain block are irreversible, finality must burn at least 33% of the total amount of ETH staked:
“Single slot finality, or SSF, is becoming increasingly important for post-merge PoS enhancement. It’s becoming obvious that the simplest way to address many of the present flaws in the Ethereum PoS design is through SSF. This is in response to a recent story stating that Buterin hopes to revive the blockchain’s initial “cypherpunk” revolution.
A “cypherpunk” is someone who accesses computer networks using encryption to protect their privacy, particularly from government agencies.
Ethereum was first intended to be a “public decentralised shared hard drive” that could make use of decentralised file storage and peer-to-peer messaging, according to Buterin’s blog post. However, with Ethereum’s shift towards financialization in 2017, the vision began to fade.
Buterin pointed out that second-generation privacy solutions, rollups, and zero-knowledge proofs have grown more commonplace. He pointed out that these might uphold some of the cypherpunk ideals.