Ten-Year Journey: The Next Frontier of Ethereum

Organizer: Golden Finance

On October 2nd at Token2049 in Singapore, a roundtable discussion themed "Ten Years In: Ethereum’s Next Frontier" took place as scheduled. This session brought together four key industry participants: Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of ConsenSys/SharpLink, Tomasz Stanczak, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, Sreeram Kannan, founder and CEO of EigenCloud, and the host — Kartik Talwar, co-founder of ETHGlobal. The four guests engaged in an in-depth dialogue about the ten-year development of Ethereum and its future direction, providing key insights to analyze new opportunities in the Ethereum ecosystem.

The following is the content of the roundtable meeting:

Kartik Talwar: Everyone, welcome. We just wrapped up a discussion themed around Formula 1, and the transition went fairly smoothly. I believe everyone feels the same way, right?

Tomasz Stanczak: It would be great if we had more time to speak for ourselves, like 12 seconds each.

Kartik Talwar: Today, I want to talk not only about reviewing the developments of the past decade but also about how we should view these experiences at present, as the industry continues to move forward. I don't usually dwell on the past, but today I really want to take some time to reflect on the early journey. Joe, I want to start by asking you: looking back over these ten years, what achievements do you think Ethereum has made that exceeded initial expectations?

The Decade of Cognitive Change in Ethereum

Joseph Lubin: My expectations were actually very high at the beginning, but I can still try to look back. Ten years ago, when Ethereum was just starting, it was still very immature. Most of the discussions at that time were related to technical language, and the core demands were quite radical, such as "destroying banks" and "shutting down some banks." Early PPTs and white papers did indeed have such statements. But I feel that both the people who initially proposed these ideas and later participants have become increasingly pragmatic. We gradually realized that we should not be destroyers, but builders. Looking back, almost no one in the crypto space believed that "decentralization" could truly be implemented in the real world.

Kartik Talwar: I had high expectations at the time, after all, we were talking about visionary people. The high expectations were also due to the fact that we witnessed the imminent transformation of the industry and saw the emergence of various new trends. I believed that institutions would go through a gradual evolutionary phase, progressively accepting and adopting these new technologies, and my mission was to drive the industry from "centralized institution dominance" to "decentralized distributed management," starting to build a new system from "zero."

Looking back now, the experience of reading the white paper and diving into the construction at that time allowed me to completely break free from the past mindset of "needing permission to act" and complete my self-awareness transformation. I have always believed that technology should gradually serve more people. We tend to promote "incremental change" rather than "revolutionary disruption"—because just like when one is sick, you wouldn’t expect a drastic "revolution" to cure it, but rather need gentle "medication" to adjust slowly. Drastic changes often lead to terrible outcomes, and this has been clear from the very beginning.

Many excellent technical documents mention organizational forms similar to a "foundation." The Ethereum Foundation often discusses how to shorten the technology implementation cycle, avoid radical changes, and allow humanity to advance technological progress more smoothly while reducing uncertainty. What we are doing now is precisely achieving this goal through resource integration and collaborative cooperation.

Kartik Talwar: Nowadays, more and more significant investments are flowing into the fields of offline office centers, large banks, and payment systems, and some companies have already entered the market directly, right?

Sreeram Kannan: When I first got into this field, I started by researching the industry landscape. At that time, the most obvious issue was that even within the knowledge circles, there were differing opinions on whether "decentralized technology can be implemented." Even someone like me, who has a certain understanding of the industry, felt that "betting on an idea that is still in its infancy on a technology that has never had a precedent" was too unrealistic.

But today, the Ethereum ecosystem has attracted numerous excellent teams, who are applying various large-scale underlying technologies to complex scenarios. Even under some simple rules, combinations of technologies can still encounter issues. However, it is precisely such explorations that give us the opportunity to change the world. The issues we are discussing now are completely different from those ten years ago, which in itself is a breakthrough.

Kartik Talwar: Speaking of this, I want to ask: What views we had on "decentralized computing" ten years ago are no longer valid now? We often say "changing the world," and ten years ago we thought the core goal was a "decentralized financial system." Looking back now, we can see that the "centralized financial system" is gradually changing, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious, but the integration process is still being carried out step by step.

This means that the "fully centralized financial world" no longer exists, and we have truly driven change. I used to think that change would be dramatic, but now I realize it happens quietly — because we participated together and pushed together, we have the results we see today.

I believe that in the next decade, this positive trend is expected to continue, but there are also some threats, such as "pseudo-decentralization" and the challenges of technological adaptation that humanity faces, and this technology will continue to play a role in driving change. Looking back in ten years, we might say that "the world of the past has disappeared," but at present, what do you think are the former understandings that no longer hold true?

Joseph Lubin: In 2014, no one could have imagined that everything could really be achieved through blockchain technology. Some of my documents from that time also mentioned similar views. Moreover, looking at the 80-year "super cycle" that began after World War II, our understanding of "how technological systems serve human society" has been continuously deepening.

It wasn't until the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act that the situation began to change: there was increasing top-down control, which was sometimes excessive, and the ability to control also grew stronger. Subsequently, the financial crisis broke out, essentially due to the numerous loopholes in the financial system. Even though there were related documents attempting to regulate it, the problems still persisted. However, at that time, we had not yet experienced a "massive failure at the code level," we had not experienced a "shutdown of cities, businesses, and industries," and we had not experienced a crisis where "people lost their businesses and jobs."

So at that time, the market's demand for "decentralized solutions" was not urgent. But now, society and the global economy urgently need to evolve towards a healthier direction — excessive control may help in building a specific civilization, but it is detrimental to 99% of ordinary people.

For this reason, we invented the "decentralized trust mechanism" and implemented it, and more and more people are beginning to use this technology to build various functions, some of which even involve important political policy areas. The "horizontal integration capability" that blockchain technology possesses allows for efficient collaboration among systems at all levels, which is exactly the advantage we have now. We are gradually emerging from difficulties, and industry engineers are also deeply understanding and valuing this technological potential.

Kartik Talwar: Alright, let's leave the past topics behind and focus directly on the present and the future. First, I want to ask the Ethereum Foundation: "Scalability" is undoubtedly one of the core priorities of the foundation. How should we assess whether the scalability efforts are on track? If we were to measure it with a "report card," how many points can we score at this point?

Ethereum Scalability Progress and Future Goals

Tomasz Stanczak: I will answer this question. We released a discussion document in September, in which we set three key indicators for each scaling direction. Each indicator corresponds to specific technical implementation goals, and we will regularly release progress reports to update everyone on the situation.

For example, in terms of "cost savings", we have overall data tracking, but specific forecasts need to be the responsibility of the board; in terms of "upgrade timelines", the progress of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and various upgrade tasks are all proceeding on schedule.

As for "throughput", someone mentioned yesterday that the current target for transaction processing volume is 70 million transactions per day. In the future, we will also focus on "how many transactions can be processed per unit of Gas" - by March next year, Ethereum's processing capacity is expected to increase more than three times compared to now, which will be a significant improvement in alleviating network congestion and reducing transaction costs, and this advantage will last for a while. In March and June next year, we will announce more targets for the next year. Over the past year, we have focused on expanding capacity, and in the future, we will continue to delve into this field while also allowing more people to get involved.

Kartik Talwar: Can you share a hint about the target direction for the next year? After all, "scalability" seems to be an endless task. How do you plan the follow-up work?

Tomasz Stanczak: Most in the industry agree that the next phase will focus on "finality", "privacy", and "security". We have previously mentioned the need to accelerate progress in these areas, but the fundamental principles of the internet — "security, privacy, and stability" — must remain unwavering.

"Finality" is one of the most discussed topics at present, and many people still have misunderstandings about it. Simply put, "finality" includes several core elements: first is the "confirmation time," which may be shortened to 4 seconds in the future; second is the "economic penalty mechanism," which ensures that once a transaction is confirmed, it cannot be reversed; finally, there is the "disaster resistance capability," which guarantees network stability even if there are major issues at the consensus layer. We not only need to verify the feasibility of these mechanisms but also clarify the definition of "finality" and industry standards, so that all participants can clearly understand it, and thus better provide "finality assurance." This will be an important direction for technological research and development, as well as industry collaboration.

Joseph Lubin: I would like to add one point: all the rules established by the Ethereum Foundation and the community revolve around a core goal - "maintaining true decentralization" and to "get it right the first time." This process can sometimes take longer, but it is worth sticking to. Moreover, "scalability" indeed has no endpoint; there is always room for optimization in technology. Ethereum seeks "infinite horizontal scalability," but as the scope of scaling expands, new vulnerabilities may arise, and there may be opportunities for some participants to "centralize monopolies." Therefore, we must remain vigilant about these risks at all times, which is very important.

Kartik Talwar: When it comes to the vision of a "world computer," we may see a significant shift in industry collaboration models in the future, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. I would like to ask how you view this trend? It seems that we are currently in the early stages of this transformation.

Sreeram Kannan: One of the core values of Ethereum is that it provides a "trust layer"—if different entities want to collaborate and influence each other, they need a mechanism that ensures the "trustworthiness of the results," and blockchain just solves this problem.

In the current rise of AI Agents, the issue of "trust deficit" is prominent in various scenarios. For example, today's AI models can generate highly realistic fake videos, making it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and this is just the beginning of the rapid development of AI. In the future, we will face a series of trust issues: how to trust counterparties? How to ensure that AI agents do not overstep their bounds? How to confirm that systems are operating as expected? These are all key issues that need to be addressed, and blockchain technology is an important tool for building a "trust foundation."

Compared to the initial innovations of Ethereum, the changes happening in the industry now are: not only are people in the crypto field focusing on "trust mechanisms", but those in traditional finance are also beginning to pay attention - they want to integrate "trust" into the settlement process as a core aspect. However, "settlement trust" is just one aspect; scenarios such as AI computation and gaming experience also require a "verifiable results" trust mechanism, which is at the core of the vision of the "world computer".

To achieve this vision, the scale of computation we need far exceeds Ethereum's current capacity, which is also the original intention behind building relevant technologies like EigenLayer. Joe mentioned Ethereum's "infinite scalability", and EigenLayer is a great example — you can build any application on it, ensuring the security of your own network while also providing security support for other decentralized networks.

This is like "a free space on Layer 1": you can build the features you want as you please. For example, in the AI field, we just launched two products two days ago — "Ethereum Compute" and "Eigen AI", which can provide security for any computing tasks and AI applications, while also maintaining "determinism".

A major problem currently facing AI is "result uncertainty": calling the same AI model multiple times may yield different results. While some uncertainty is necessary for design, we need a mechanism to control it - for example, the same input should produce the same output. However, most current AI models (especially large language models) do not possess this kind of "determinism", as they are influenced by various factors. Once we achieve "determinism", we can build a "verification mechanism" for AI: if a certain node promises to correctly perform AI calculations but actually violates the rules, others can verify by re-running the calculations, thus discovering the violations and imposing penalties. I believe that these new technological primitives are essential for unlocking the "AI agent trust mechanism".

Kartik Talwar: This logic is very similar to what we discussed earlier. Next, I want to delve into a more fundamental question: how should ordinary people understand these technologies? Layer 2 projects have made significant progress over the past year, with teams investing a lot of effort in engineering scalability. In the coming years, how will we see the "ordinary user cognition" combine with "technological development"? Do users need to directly understand these underlying technologies? Or will there be intermediary tools to bridge the gap? What changes will occur in the economic model as a result? How do you view the implementation of these mechanisms?

Future Challenges and Developer Suggestions

Tomasz Stanczak: I am happy to quickly share my thoughts. Linea's goal is to build a new Layer2 solution, drawing on the advantages of different Layer2s — including Optimistic Rollup and Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK-Rollup). We believe we have mastered the most advanced zero-knowledge EDM technology, thanks to the excellent technical experts on our team.

But we realize that the industry first needs to address the issue of "ecological fragmentation": before the infrastructure is completed on Layer 1, it is necessary to provide developers with powerful tools to help them establish projects and develop the ecosystem. This is also one of the core functions of Ethereum's scalability roadmap, and so far, the results have been very good. Previously, the industry was in the "decentralized exploration stage", with everyone trying different directions; now we have entered the "integration and convergence stage", which requires connecting various parts to form a more unified and coherent ecosystem. This is also the focus of our current efforts— for example, achieving ecological synergy through tools like wallets and native system commands, and the progress is going smoothly.

There are a few key decisions for Linea: First, we pursue "100% compatibility with Ethereum," meaning that all contracts and execution logic that can run on Ethereum can also run safely on Linea, which is different from many other Layer 2 solutions; Second, we hope to support the "Ethereum mainnet"—after all, the existence of Linea is inseparable from the ecological foundation of the mainnet, so we will use the Linea token as the native token of the network, and 20% of each transaction fee will be used to burn ETH, with the remaining fees also being burned in a similar manner. This is our competitive advantage and the industry benchmark we hope to establish.

In addition, the team allocated 15% of the tokens to the development company (ConsenSys), but we persuaded investors and employees: "Only when the ecosystem develops well can everyone benefit." Therefore, aside from this 15%, there are no other token allocations, and the remaining 85% is all used for ecological construction – including providing funding for developers, investing in projects, providing liquidity support, incentivizing network usage, etc. Currently, we have invested approximately 2 million USD in cultivating ecological value and will continue to intensify our efforts in the future. More importantly, we laid a solid foundation from the very beginning: reasonable valuation, no sell pressure risk, coupled with technical advantages, we believe we can build a robust ecosystem.

Kartik Talwar: You mentioned "supporting the Ethereum mainnet," does this mean that Linea's development philosophy is aligned with the Ethereum mainnet?

Tomasz Stanczak: Conceptually, it is highly consistent. We hope to cover as many ecological scenarios as possible, so in discussions we will focus on "protocol innovation" - different markets have different needs, some markets are more inclined towards globalization, while others focus on specific field innovation. Developers will choose suitable technologies and communication methods based on their business needs and market opportunities.

But this does not mean that we will ignore the optimization of the Ethereum mainnet: the scalability and economic sustainability of the mainnet are directions we continue to focus on. In the future, more people will participate in "Layer 2 exploration," because everyone knows that only through continuous experimentation can risks be reduced and new markets be developed — for example, there are many tools exploring the "scalability of financial scenarios" now, and there are also many exchanges in places like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong that are laying out related solutions, all of which enrich the entire ecosystem.

Currently, there are many discussions in the industry about "probabilistic solutions," and early participants are enjoying the dividends of ecological development. What we need to do is to instill confidence in everyone about the "shared future" — this is not only about technology, but also about "rights" and "consensus": we must face the problems head-on, and more importantly, let everyone believe that through collective efforts, we can achieve long-term development in this ecosystem, which is also the core philosophy of Ethereum.

What makes me particularly happy this year is that when everyone had questions about the "cross-chain collaboration mechanism," we were able to incorporate it into the "preliminary protocol planning" and have made smooth progress, seeing actual results.

Sreeram Kannan: From a technical perspective, "communication and execution architecture" is the current core focus - this is not only the emphasis of Layer 2 but also the key point of block processing for Layer 1 (Ethereum mainnet). Many people now use AI as a "data scaling tool"; for example, the processing speed of a certain AI tool can reach 100MB/s, which is very high at present, and in the future, it can be further expanded to integrate data from multiple chains.

In other words, with the help of such tools, we can build dozens of "sub-ecosystems" on top of Ethereum, achieving collaborative scaling and mutual support between Layer 1 and Layer 2. This interaction between technologies is, in my opinion, very exciting.

Kartik Talwar: With one minute left, I have two more questions, please limit your answers to within 10 sentences. First, I would like to ask: In the next ten years, what is the core issue that Ethereum needs to solve the most to maintain its leading position?

Sreeram Kannan: I believe the core is the balance between "legal compliance" and "risk resistance."

Kartik Talwar: How is this related to the "engineering validation" you mentioned earlier?

Joseph Lubin: Regardless of the ultimate goals to be achieved, I hope the ecosystem can maintain diversity.

Kartik Talwar: Makes sense. One last question, everyone can answer in one sentence. Obviously, developers will make choices between different ecosystems and public chains. We know the scalability roadmap for Ethereum. What advice would you give to those developers who plan to build projects based on the Ethereum ecosystem or even invest their efforts in the next decade?

Joseph Lubin: First of all, there's no need to get caught up in choosing which chain - we will eventually solve the cross-chain integration issue, and the value of all ecosystems will be interconnected. You just need to focus on the areas that truly concern you, dig deep, and become an expert; whether you are focused on a niche market or a general field, now is the best time to enter - especially at the end of the "super cycle", as the old system gradually collapses, a new social contract and a new global system are about to be established, and you have a complete opportunity to participate in building all of this.

Kartik Talwar: In the Ethereum ecosystem, cross-chain migration is actually very convenient. So, just choose the direction that you support the most, feel most comfortable with, and that excites you, while also aligning with your business scenario.

Sreeram Kannan: I suggest everyone to be more ambitious - what we are currently doing is still far from enough. Our goal is to reshape the entire economic system, so we must work together to achieve this vision.

Kartik Talwar: My advice is to choose an ecosystem that aligns with your values, one that you, your team, and even future generations can trust for the long term. Thank you all for your sharing; this conversation was very enlightening.