The Possible Future of the Ethereum Protocol (6): Prosperity

The prosperity phase involves many key improvements aimed at optimizing the performance and functionality of the Ethereum protocol. The main objectives include:

1. Upgrade the EVM to a high-performance and stable "final state"
2. Introduce account abstraction to allow all users to enjoy a safer and more convenient account experience.
3. Optimize the transaction fee economic model to improve scalability and reduce risk.
4. Explore advanced cryptographic technologies to lay the foundation for the long-term development of Ethereum.

EVM Improvement

Currently, the EVM has issues such as difficulty in static analysis and low efficiency. The EVM object format (EOF) is the first step for improvement and is planned to be included in the next hard fork. EOF will bring features such as separation of code and data, and prohibition of dynamic jumps.

Subsequent improvements include EVM module arithmetic extension ( EVM-MAX ) and Single Instruction Multiple Data ( SIMD ) functionality. These improvements will significantly enhance the efficiency of cryptographic operations.

Account Abstraction

Account abstraction aims to allow smart contract code to control transaction validation, no longer limited to ECDSA signatures. This will support advanced features such as multi-signature wallets and social recovery.

ERC-4337 is the current solution for achieving "ideal account abstraction". However, in the long term, it is necessary to write some functionalities into the protocol. EIP-7701 proposes implementing account abstraction based on EOF.

EIP-1559 Improvement

EIP-1559 significantly improved block inclusion times, but there are still some flaws. Multi-dimensional Gas is an important direction for improvement, setting different prices and limits for different resources. EIP-7706 introduces a new Gas dimension specifically for calldata.

Verifiable Delay Functions ( VDFs )

VDFs are designed to provide a more robust source of randomness. It is a function that can only be computed sequentially and cannot be accelerated in parallel. VDFs can be used to improve the security of proposer selection and support on-chain applications that rely on randomness.

Advanced Cryptography

ZK-SNARKs, fully homomorphic encryption ( FHE ), and indistinguishability obfuscation are three extremely powerful universal cryptographic primitives. These technologies are expected to significantly enhance the privacy and security of Ethereum in the future, supporting more complex application scenarios.

Overall, the improvements during the prosperity phase will make the Ethereum protocol more efficient, secure, and feature-rich, laying a solid foundation for long-term development in the future.