Original author: 0x_Todd, partner of Nothing Research (X: @0x_Todd)

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Vitalik Hong Kong Web3 Carnival Speech: Pursuing the Limits of Cryptography

Editors note: During the 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech Reaching the Limits of Protocol Design at the Web3 Scholar Summit 2024 hosted by DRK Lab. Nothing Research partner 0x_Todd posted on X to share her understanding and insights of Vitaliks speech. 0x_Todd said that under the premise of both security and efficiency, Ethereum’s goal is to absorb more cryptographic achievements and aim at the upper limit of cryptography. This is the real difference between first-class public chains and second-class public chains. Odaily organizes it as follows:

Today, Vitalik made a low-key appearance at the Wanxiang Hasheky Hong Kong Summit. Vitalik’s speech was really neat and clear, without red tape. From the very beginning, he presented $ETH dry information and spoke straightforwardly. Based on this speech, let me talk about my understanding.

All blockchains are rooted in cryptography. It can be said that cryptography is the real bottom layer. And in recent years, the theoretical frontier of cryptography has been developing. andThe current goal of Ethereum $ETH is to convert cryptography theory into engineering practice.

Friends who have done development know that the more cutting-edge something in academia is, the more challenging it is to directly use it in the industry, and cryptography is no exception.

The cryptographic frontiers that Ethereum is most concerned about right now are:

• ZK-SNARKs

• 2 PC、MPC、FHE

• aggregate signature

• Improving P2P networks

For example, aggregated signatures. In fact, Bitcoin has already undergone similar upgrades in the Schnorr upgrade. The BLS aggregated signature upgrade and Schnorr that Ethereum tends to have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they can also be achieved.Aggregating multiple signatures into one signature becomes very smooth。

A cryptographic achievement can actually be transformed into:

• Make the blockchain more private (co-signing by multiple people helps protect privacy)

• Save gas fees (co-signing takes up less space)

• Requirements for equipment are further reduced (easy to verify)

At the same time, V God also mentioned two elements of academic theory → technical practice.

The first is, efficiency.

For example, a very practical problem is that the block interval of the Ethereum main network is 12 seconds, but it takes 20 minutes at the fastest to do ZK-SNARKs Proof.

If there can be a lightweight ZK Proof solution and every block can be fully ZK-proof, then Ethereum will be very private, secure and censorship-resistant, and even faster.

Secondly, safety.

As long as we are human, we will make mistakes.

No one can guarantee that there are no bugs in their code.

Now, Debug relies on the naked eye, such as the Safety Committee.

But in the future, we may be able to rely on multi-provers, and in the further future, we may even be able to rely on AI.

Under the premise of both security and efficiency, absorb more cryptographic achievements,Ethereums goal is to reach the upper limit of cryptography.

After listening to this, I felt very excited. What drives the development of ETH and all other blockchains is the truly cutting-edge technology.

Now, all the public chains ranked behind ETH are desperately comparing themselves with Ethereum, and are trying to find answers from Ethereum, a competing product.

Ethereum, however, finds the answer in cryptography. This is the real difference between first-rate public chains and second-rate public chains.

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