The recent trading data of the Ethereum market is in a state of volatility, with a slight drop in the price of Ethereum and a decrease in trading volume. The RSI indicator shows that Ethereum is in an oversold state, which may indicate the possibility of market adjustments.
Then on August 7, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik tweeted a research summary of Ethereum block construction as of that day. The post basically said that it is generally agreed in the industry that it is a good idea for multiple participants to contribute to transactions that must be included in the block. However, there is still public controversy about whether it is possible to avoid the "last mover" problem. Vitalik believes that the topic of block construction is approaching a breakthrough. In addition, they also mentioned a new design of Braid proposed by @MaxResnick1. Before you get to know it in depth, you can first understand a few new concepts.
Related concepts analysis to understand the potential value opportunities of the public chain ecosystem
What is Blockchain?
Block construction refers to the process of forming new blocks in the blockchain. This process usually involves verifying and packaging transactions and adding them to the irreversible sequence of the blockchain. Its impact on the cryptocurrency circle and blockchain is crucial, because the efficiency and security of block construction directly affects the operating speed, scalability and security of the blockchain network.
What progress does Vitalik's agreement that "multiple participants contribute to transactions that must be included in a block" bring to today's blockchain?
"Multi-Party Committed Transactions" (MPCT) means that when multiple participants can contribute transactions to a block, it means that the blockchain system is more open and inclusive. This practice helps increase the security and decentralization of the block because it reduces the control of a single node or entity over the operation of the blockchain. This model can also promote network efficiency, ensuring that more transactions are confirmed and processed, thereby improving the overall transaction throughput and network stability.
Compared with the current blockchain transaction method, the progress of MPCT
1. Decentralization and enhanced security:
Traditional method: Usually a small number of nodes or miners are responsible for packaging transactions into blocks, which poses a centralization risk because these nodes may centrally control part of the blockchain network.
Progress: Allowing multiple participants to contribute transactions to the block together improves decentralization. This model reduces the control of a single node or entity over blockchain operations and enhances the network's security and anti-attack capabilities.
2. Improved transaction processing efficiency:
Traditional method: Due to the limitation of a single node or miner, transaction processing may be slow, especially when there is transaction congestion.
Progress: Allowing multiple participants to contribute to transactions at the same time helps improve transaction processing efficiency and throughput. This allows transactions to be confirmed more quickly, reduces the possibility of transaction congestion, and improves user experience.
3. Enhanced fairness and inclusiveness:
Traditional method: Transactions are prioritized by a small number of miners, which may result in some transactions being confirmed first while other transactions are delayed.
Progress: Multiple participants contributing transactions makes the block formation process fairer, and each participant has a more equal opportunity to include their transactions in the next block. This fairness enhances the inclusiveness of the blockchain and better serves the majority of user groups.
What is the "last mover" problem?
The "last mover" refers to the node or participant in the blockchain who still tries to add transactions or perform operations at the last moment when a new block is about to be formed or has been formed. These participants may face a competitive environment, as their transactions may be delayed in confirmation or even excluded from upcoming blocks due to time constraints or due to priority processing by other nodes.
This situation may result in slower transaction processing or increased costs for some participants, affecting their transaction experience and efficiency on the blockchain network.
What is the new Braid design?
A new design called Braid was proposed by @MaxResnick1. The core idea of this design is to run multiple Ethereum consensus instances simultaneously. This approach can significantly improve the efficiency and throughput of the Ethereum network, and has a potentially significant impact on the future development roadmap of Ethereum. The video highlights this innovative possibility and how it can bring new development directions and technological prospects to Ethereum in the context of the evolution of blockchain technology.
The core concept of Braid's new design is to implement multiple parallel block proposers in the Ethereum network. The basic idea of this design is to run multiple Ethereum consensus instances simultaneously to improve the efficiency and performance of the overall network. The specific technical details and implementation methods may involve how to coordinate and manage these parallel instances to ensure network security and consistency.
This new design of Braid may have an important role in Ethereum’s development roadmap. By implementing multiple parallel block proposers, the throughput and processing power of the Ethereum network can be significantly improved. This is very beneficial for solving the congestion and latency issues that can occur on the current Ethereum network when transaction volumes are high. In addition, the implementation of Braid design may also promote technological innovation in Ethereum and provide developers and users with a more stable and efficient blockchain platform. Therefore, Braid design is expected to play an important role in the future upgrade and development of Ethereum, promoting the development of the network in a more efficient and scalable direction.
Vitalik proposes a solution to the miner extractable value (MEV) problem
Vitalik recently put forward his ideas on the Ethereum construction problem - Miner Extractable Value (MEV).
MEV refers to the ability of miners or validators to earn additional profits by rearranging transactions in a block. This practice leads to unfair transaction processing, network congestion, and increased gas fees.
MEV has several negative effects:
Network congestion: Miners compete to include high-profit transactions, leading to network congestion and increased gas fees for ordinary users.
Rising fees: As validators prioritize high MEV transactions, it becomes more expensive for ordinary users to process transactions.
Fairness issues: Specific users or people with special tools can gain unfair advantages by manipulating the order of transactions.
Vitalik’s proposed solution:
MEV Isolation: Limits the ability of validators to reorder transactions and submit transactions to MEV auction bidding.
MEV minimization: Optimize the block construction algorithm to reduce the possibility of validators extracting too much MEV.
Inclusion list: Users can submit a list of transaction processing orders, increasing user control over the transaction processing order.
Standardized node requirements: Reduce the difficulty of running a node, increase network decentralization, and reduce the control of MEV by a few validators.
Effects of MPCT on MEV
The concept of "Multi-Party Committed Transactions (MPCT)" and the challenge of the MEV problem do have some positive effects.
1. Reduce the possibility of transaction reordering: MPCT aims to ensure that transactions submitted by multiple participants are included in the block, thereby reducing the space for miners or validators to reorder transactions. This method can limit the ability of miners to obtain MEV by rearranging transactions to a certain extent.
2. Enhanced predictability of transactions: Since transactions from multiple participants have been committed to be included in the block, this enhances the predictability of transaction order and processing. This helps reduce the utilization space of MEV and makes it impossible for miners to gain unfair advantages by adjusting the order.
3. Promote fairness and reduce network congestion: By ensuring that transactions from multiple participants are processed in a timely manner, MPCT helps reduce network congestion and rising costs caused by MEV. This is of great significance to improving the fairness and efficiency of the overall network.
In summary, MPCT, as a technical means, can alleviate the challenges brought by the MEV problem to a certain extent, especially the unfairness of transaction order priority and the negative impact on network efficiency. However, the implementation of MPCT is not the ultimate solution to completely solve MEV, and it is still necessary to comprehensively consider the promotion of other technologies and community consensus. The summary of Ethereum block construction research published by Vitalik can give people some previews of the future development of Ethereum, but whether it can adapt to the development remains to be considered.
