Ethereum's road to breaking in the next ten years: block chain modularization
Original Author: Codex Labs
Original compilation: ETH Chinese
It has been 5 years since Vitalik Buterin proposed The Blockchain Trilemma. Both the ETH-core community and developers of other public chains are trying to find the key to unlock the next generation of blockchain.
In his Endgame article, Vitalik described what he believed to be the ultimate form of Ethereum, and spent a lot of space describing a new Ethereum built by Rollups and DA. Undoubtedly, to some extent, it points out the way to break the situation of Ethereum in the next ten years - modularization.
And we know that whether it is Ethereum or the new public chains, they have already started their own modularization road, but the "response" methods are different, and they have formed completely different technical routes.
1. Blockchain layering
In fact, Ethereum itself has divided the blockchain into multiple layers, but in the 1.0 era, nodes assumed the responsibilities of all layers. We can follow the idea of Ethereum and split the blockchain into four levels:
Consensus Layer: determines the order, validity and consistency of transactions between nodes
Data Availability Layer (Data Availability Layer): Ensure that transaction data can be used (guaranteed storage and verifiable and available)
Settlement Layer: Settlement state commitment
Execution Layer: Computing state transitions
Returning to the narrative logic that Ethereum is the "world computer", and making an analogy between the modules of the blockchain and the computer structure, then:
Consensus layer of blockchain ⇒ maintain consensus algorithm of distributed computer cluster
The execution layer of the blockchain ⇒ the operating system of the computer (the environment that actually executes instructions)
Blockchain's DA layer ⇒ computer's memory (for short-term data access)
The settlement layer of the blockchain ⇒ the CPU of the computer (hardware guarantees the correctness of instruction execution)
It is worth mentioning that the EigenLayr project further divided the consensus layer very groundbreakingly. He understood the role of the PoS consensus layer as being responsible for maintaining the consistency of the distributed system and and other mechanisms to maintain the trust foundation of the network. This results in two sublayers:
Trust layer: It is composed of the bottom verifier node, or the hardware entity pledged to join the Ethereum network
Consistency layer: connect each node to maintain the consistency of this huge distributed system
It is the distinction of these levels (modules) that provides the basis for the modular development of the blockchain, resulting in the emergence of various dismantling schemes for the main chain.
2. Project Mapping
In the layered logic we mentioned above, trust is gradually passed from the consensus (trust) end to the execution layer, and the core starting point of the separation module is to avoid harming the original trust system as much as possible. Reduce the burden on the main network.
2.1 Secured Rollups
Obviously, the first thing to be disassembled is the execution layer at the end of the trust system. Therefore, various Rollups based on Ethereum came into being. Whether it is optimistic Rollups based on fraud proofs or zk-Rollups based on validity proofs, the existing solution is to hand over the execution layer to the off-chain. The settlement, DA and consensus are handed over to Layer1 to continue to undertake, which is of course the most intuitive solution.
We call it Secured Rollups, which can be understood as Rollups protected by Layer 1. This name comes from the description of Scailing in the official Ethereum document:
For some solutions the layer 2 instance then batches them into groups before anchoring them to layer 1, after which they are secured by layer 1 and cannot be altered. The details of how this is done vary significantly between different layer 2 technologies and implementations.
However, "dismantling" often means that the problem of "connection" will surface. At present, almost all mainstream Rollups hold the centralized power of transaction ordering. Of course, as an important component connecting the execution layer and the main network, the centralization of Sequencer is bound to help improve system efficiency, but the "dark forest" formed by the high concentration of transaction sequencing power is unavoidable. Get caught up in concerns about MEV attacks (Shutter Network is working on making Sequencer trustless by introducing threshold encryption).
2.2 Sovereign Rollups
Rollup on Ethereum currently publishes its blocks directly to EVM-based smart contracts, also known as bridge contracts. This contract effectively implements an on-chain light client for Rollup that receives block headers and handles fraud or validity proofs.
In this model, we believe that Ethereum is enshrined as the coupled settlement layer of Rollup, where Rollup is the "baby chain" of Ethereum, rather than an independent chain with its own rights.
To make an inappropriate analogy, the Ethereum Rollups that only separate the execution layer are like "workers" who only "move bricks" (calculations) without any power to participate in the final game (settlement) , in what way and in what order the bricks are finally piled up, L1 has the final say.
Celestia's design obviously wins more power for Rollups, and it defines a new way of module division: Sovereign Rollups, namely Sovereign Rollups.
Sovereign Rollups on Celestia do not publish their blocks to smart contracts, but directly to the chain as raw data. The Celestia consensus and data availability layer does not interpret or perform any calculations on Rollup blocks, nor does it run on-chain light clients for Rollups.
2.3 Danksharding
Whether it is Danksharding or the original data sharding scheme, it is essentially to solve the problem of the DA layer. In the context of modular blockchains, Danksharding obviously improves the ability of the Ethereum mainnet to undertake the data availability layer.
Danksharding uses Data Availability Sampling (DAS) technology to achieve "decentralized validators", which is very similar to Celestia's solution.
Although we know that the ultimate form of the Ethereum consensus layer will still assume the responsibility of settlement and data availability. However, the decentralization of verification work realized by DAS technology greatly reduces the cost of participating in network verification, thereby further releasing the performance of the main network.
After the Danksharding fork, the Ethereum mainnet assumes part of the power to review the availability of data, while Rollups assumes the power of the DA layer in addition to the original executive layer responsibilities.
2.4 EigenLayr
We mentioned EigenLayr's further subdivision of the consensus layer above, which strips the trust layer of Ethereum from the entire network and tries to build an independent layer on the trust layer - EigenLayer. This layer relies on Based on the Ethereum trust layer network (or Ethereum Pang
large pledged capital) to provide infrastructure/middleware service providers with a platform where they can freely build consensus and applications.
Among them, how to connect the Ethereum trust layer and EigenLayer is the key point of the whole design. EigenLayr cleverly proposed a brand new concept - Restaking. Pledge nodes on Ethereum can voluntarily choose to join EigenLayr. On the other hand, middleware/infrastructure service providers who have more requirements for performance can also choose to build their own networks on EigenLayr.
EigenLayr's separation scheme is equivalent to only "borrowing" the credit (consensus) foundation of Ethereum, and on this basis, we can start endless associations, whether it is to build a new sovereign chain or build a foundation Facility networks, all have possibilities. Behind these possibilities is the huge credit foundation of the Ethereum mainnet.
2.5 Arweave
We can find that in the foreseeable future on the road of Ethereum modularization, the main network will still maintain control over the consensus layer, or the consensus layer, as the soul of Ethereum, is the "holy grail" that brings together participants and values.
It is also a modular blockchain, and Arweave is obviously unique. It jumps out of the narrative logic of Ethereum, that is, it builds a design paradigm based on storage consensus.
In the design of Arweave, the main network serves as the paper tape of the entire Turing machine, recording these states and the transactions of each modified state at the bottom layer, realizing the separation of storage and computing resources.
It can be said that Arweave redefines our modular segmentation, it uses the DA layer to ensure consensus, and the execution and settlement are all handed over to the chain.
Of course, the price is: in order to obtain the validity guarantee of the latest state data, users need to download all historical state data and perform a verification calculation before performing local off-chain calculations, which will obviously bring about efficiency problems (KYVE Network is work on addressing the inefficiencies that this part of the job creates).
3. Summary
Throughout the exploration of these blockchain modularization roads, although a hundred flowers are blooming, there are still traces to follow. At its root, the source of motivation for different route choices often comes from their different understandings of market demand.
The big market brought about by this round of DeFi has created an urgent demand for the scalability of Ethereum and the composability of different chains. It is also based on these needs that many solutions dedicated to alleviating the pressure on the main network have been launched. If the narrative logic of the future blockchain network is still built on financial primitives, then perhaps ETH2.0 with Rollups at its core will be the visible end of the modular road.
What if we jump out of the shackles of the centralized financial context and try to imagine the wider application of the blockchain? Large-scale games, real-world asset transactions, decentralized social networks, etc., then we may need a new modular solution to fully release the performance of each module.
On the other hand, for the development of the public chain itself, consensus is the core value of the public chain. As we mentioned above, no matter how Ethereum develops, it will not abandon its consensus layer in exchange for performance.
Reference article:
Reference article:
《Vitalik: The final picture of Ethereum centered on rollup"( Chinese Version )
Rolling Shutter: MEV protection built into Layer 2
https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/proto_danksharding_faq
《Vitalik: Proto-Danksharding FAQOriginal link
