Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder and lead architect of Ethereum, expressed his regret at ETHBerlin for not adopting a simpler version of Proof of Stake (PoS) earlier. He also acknowledged that Ethereum is still widely misunderstood, unlike Bitcoin, which has a clear narrative as digital gold.
ETHBerlin, a coding event that attracted 620 developers this year, had a surprise guest in the form of Vitalik Buterin. During his unexpected appearance, Buterin shared his reflections on the design of Ethereum.
Despite its mainstream success, Ethereum continues to be a source of confusion for many. In contrast, Bitcoin’s narrative as digital gold is straightforward and easily understood.
Ethereum’s growth has been remarkable, with the approval of a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund in the U.S. and the launch of a tokenized fund by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, on Ethereum’s blockchain. The Ethereum network now boasts a vast ecosystem of developers and financial applications worth over $63 billion.
However, Buterin admitted that there are things he would have done differently. These include the development of Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (EVM), smart contracts, and the PoS consensus mechanism.
“But with Ethereum, it’s like, ‘Whoa, what the heck is Ethereum?'” Buterin remarked, highlighting the confusion surrounding the platform’s purpose.
During the event, Buterin reminisced about his fond memories in Berlin, such as working alongside Ethereum co-founders Gavin Wood and Jeffrey Wilcke, launching Devcon Zero, and celebrating the Merge upgrade in 2022.
When asked how he would build Ethereum differently today, given his knowledge and experience over the past decade, Buterin expressed his concerns about the original design of Ethereum’s Virtual Machine. He explained that using 256-bit processing instead of 64- or 32-bit was inefficient and led to unnecessary bloat on the blockchain.
Buterin also acknowledged that early Ethereum developers should have focused on simplifying smart contracts. A simpler design with fewer lines of code would have added transparency and made it easier to verify the inner workings of the contracts.
The switch from Proof of Work (PoW) to PoS in 2022 was another aspect that Buterin believed should have happened earlier. PoS replaced miners with validators who stake 32 Ethereum to secure the network. Buterin stated that a simpler proof-of-stake mechanism could have been implemented in 2018, saving resources and energy.
Furthermore, Buterin expressed regret over the lack of automatic logging from the beginning. Automatic logging would help track token transfers and detect potential fraudulent activities, especially as the industry transitions to smart wallets.
In conclusion, Buterin acknowledged the areas where Ethereum could have been improved and expressed his regret at not implementing certain changes earlier. Nonetheless, Ethereum’s success and growth remain undeniable, even if the platform is still not widely understood.
