Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, has asserted that adopting the role of Single Slot Finality (SSF) is the most direct approach to addressing most of the shortcomings in Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) design.
In a recent disclosure of Ethereum‘s roadmap for 2024, Buterin acknowledged that there are only minor alterations compared to the previous year.
Through a series of posts on the platform X (formerly Twitter), Buterin outlined that Ethereum’s continuous focus in 2024, with ETH projected at $2,280, revolves around six key components.
Additionally, using a comprehensive chart with annotations and diagrams, Buterin elaborated on these six elements: the merge, the surge, the scourge, the verge, the purge, and the splurge.
He emphasized that as Ethereum’s technical direction becomes more defined, there are only a few minor adjustments compared to the 2023 roadmap: “As Ethereum’s technical path forward continues to solidify, there are relatively few changes.”
The Merge was highlighted as a pivotal section on the roadmap, aiming to maintain a simple and resilient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus.
In September 2022, The Merge took place, integrating the Ethereum mainnet with the proof-of-stake blockchain, the Beacon Chain.
Post-merge, the most significant development on Ethereum was the shift from a power-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to PoS, resulting in a substantial reduction in the network’s overall energy consumption.
Buterin also highlighted developments on Ethereum’s Single Slot Finality (SSF). SSF aims to ensure that changes to a blockchain block are irreversible without burning at least 33% of the total staked ETH: “The role of Single Slot Finality (SSF) in post-Merge PoS improvement is solidifying. It’s becoming clear that SSF is the easiest path to resolving a lot of the Ethereum PoS design’s current weaknesses.”
This revelation follows recent reports that Buterin aims to revive the original concept of the “cypherpunk” revolution for the blockchain.
Cypherpunk refers to individuals using encryption to ensure privacy when accessing a computer network, particularly from government authorities.
Buterin explained in a blog post that Ethereum was initially envisioned as a “public decentralized shared hard drive” leveraging peer-to-peer messaging and decentralized file storage. However, the vision shifted in 2017 towards financialization on Ethereum. Buterin noted that rollups, zero-knowledge proofs, account abstraction, and second-generation privacy solutions have gained prominence, potentially supporting values associated with cypherpunk principles.
