Ethereum researcher Justin Drake unveiled the “Lean Ethereum” proposal connected July 31 that reframes the basal furniture astir the imperatives of survivability against nation-state and quantum threats and orders-of-magnitude show gains without sacrificing decentralization.
The caller guidelines were dubbed “fort mode” and “beast mode,” respectively.
Published connected the Ethereum Foundation blog, the imaginativeness argued that the web tin simultaneously harden information and radically standard by anchoring the mainnet successful hash-based cryptography and restructuring each 3 protocol sublayers, which are consensus, data, and execution.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Drake precocious addressed the conception during an ETH-focused lawsuit successful Berlin.
Fort mode and beast mode
Drake’s information thesis highlights that Ethereum indispensable tally for decades, adjacent centuries, nether adversarial conditions.
According to the roadmap, “if the net is up, Ethereum is up” is the goal. On performance, Lean Ethereum targets astir 10,000 transactions per 2nd (TPS) connected mainnet via assertive vertical scaling and astir 1 cardinal TPS connected layer-2 (L2) blockchains via expansive horizontal scaling.
He added that enabling “moon-math” is nary longer aspirational, suggesting real-time zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) for execution and information availability sampling (DAS) for information throughput.
A complementary usability purpose is full-chain verification connected user devices, specified arsenic browsers, phones, and wallets.
Three “lean” sublayers
Lean Ethereum proposes coordinated upgrades crossed 3 antithetic layers. The archetypal is “Lean consensus,” oregon Beacon Chain 2.0, focused connected hardening the Beacon Chain for maximum information and decentralization, with near-instant finality measured successful seconds.
Lean information (Blobs 2.0) is the 2nd layer. The extremity is to alteration post-quantum “blobs” with granular sizing to sphere a calldata-like developer acquisition portion boosting throughput.
Lastly, Lean execution (EVM 2.0) consists of a minimal, SNARK-friendly acquisition acceptable that preserves EVM compatibility and web effects but accelerates proving and verification.
Together, these changes purpose to present “performance abundance” nether non-negotiable continuity and simplicity constraints.
Hash-based crypto arsenic the modular fabric
Lean Ethereum treats the hash relation arsenic the cardinal primitive crossed layers. Aggregate signatures successful statement supplanting Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS), hash-based commitments replacing Kate, Zaverucha, and Goldberg (KZG) successful the information layer, and hash-centric zkVMs streamlining execution verification.
The attack is designed to simultaneously future-proof against quantum adversaries portion harmonizing with the accelerated emergence of SNARKs crossed the stack.
Drake said that Lean Ethereum is arsenic overmuch an engineering aesthetic arsenic a roadmap. The conception is based connected minimal modules, encapsulated complexity, ceremonial verification, and provable information and optimality.
The accent connected “lean craft” seeks to prune bequest complexity portion standardizing connected primitives that are easier to crushed and verify.
The station Justin Drake reveals 10-year ‘Lean Ethereum’ roadmap to execute 10k TPS connected mainnet appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.