Ethereum 2.0 might be not any closer to happening than it was before but co-founder Vitalik Buterin has its vision of what he wants it to be.

Ethereum is the second biggest blockchain platform after Bitcoin by market capitalization. As we recently reported, during the heightened market activity the network got congested resulting in the unconfirmed transactions spiking up along with the gas prices.

Now, Buterin took to Twitter to share what the next 5 to 10 years of ETH 2.0 and beyond might look like, with a special focus on scalability.

No, it's Casper FFG at first.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 18, 2020

Over the last about two years, Buterin said there has been a solid shift from the “blue sky” research as they try to understand what exactly is possible and to optimize specific primitives that are implementable.

The focus during this time has been on maintaining compatibility and ensuring a smooth transition for applications, “making eth1.x and eth2 fit together as part of a coherent vision.”

The market is volatile and fast-paced but Buterin maintains that it will be worth it for both security and scalability. But it is subject to change as new information or technology comes into the light.

Reducing Complexity

The Ethereum 2.0 will mark the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), which will bring fundamental changes to the network.

Buterin specifically talked about Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK-SNARKs) which he previously said could scale Ethereum. Privacy-based technology, ZK-SNARKs make it easier to send anonymous crypto transactions.

Sharding is another technology that has long been considered by Ethereum for scalability that splits the blockchain up, making it lighter to keep the network running. “Sharding allows massive scaling, much higher than the capacity of a single computer, and rollups give us an extra 2 orders of magnitude of scaling in top. Eth2 is all about scale,” said Buterin.

Both combined, Buterin said would accommodate more transactions and make the network cheaper to use.

1. Sharding and ZKPs ensure verification cost much cheaper than personally re-computing every tx
2. PoS and not PoW
3. Stateless verification
4. Supports arbitrary smart contracts (like eth today)
5. Supports strong privacy at L2
6. 12s block time, each block equiv to many confs

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 18, 2020

All of the changes in the Ethereum network, Buterins said, are in the direction of “reducing complexity.”