On the evening of September 5, 2024, the Ethereum Foundation held its 12th AMA (Ask Me Anything) event. The event was held on Twitter Space and was attended by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, foundation members Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist, and other core members, who discussed a number of issues of concern to the community. The following is a summary and interpretation of the important content of this AMA, focusing on the Ethereum team's views on the poor performance of ETH prices and its response strategies.
1. Layer1 expansion plan: not just relying on Layer2
During the AMA, the team made it clear that although Layer2 is seen as the key to Ethereum expansion, Layer1 expansion plans are still ongoing. Justin and Vitalik mentioned that the scalability of the Ethereum mainnet itself will be further enhanced through precompilation performed by the virtual machine, optimization of ZK proof technology, and application of Verkle tree technology. These technical improvements are designed to improve the performance of Layer1, thereby forming a complementary relationship with Layer2 in terms of expansion.
2. Theoretical basis of ETH appreciation: ETH is Money
In response to the poor performance of ETH prices, Justin Drake made it clear that the appreciation of ETH is crucial to the success of Ethereum. He believes that the value support of ETH comes mainly from three aspects: first, ETH carries trillions of dollars of economic bandwidth of decentralized stablecoins; second, ETH provides unquestionable economic security; third, ETH's economic vitality attracts the attention of major economic participants. In short, ETH's role as "Money" is the basis for its long-term appreciation.
3. The impact of Layer2 strategy on ETH: How to avoid diversion
The community is generally worried that the development of Layer2 will lead to a reduction in ETH usage scenarios, which will in turn affect its value. In this regard, Dankrad said that Layer2 will not weaken the value of the Ethereum mainnet, but will provide more room for expansion for the mainnet. The low fees and efficient transaction capabilities of Layer2 allow more applications to survive in the Ethereum ecosystem, which in turn supports the high-value transaction scenarios of the mainnet. Justin emphasized that the key is to increase the overall transaction volume, not the amount of a single transaction.
4. Ensuring Net Neutrality: Measures to Counter Government Censorship
Ethereum's trusted neutrality has always been one of its core values. Vitalik mentioned that to ensure this, the foundation is exploring how to further decentralize the validator set and improve the consensus layer so that decentralized validators can force transactions to be packaged into blocks. These improvements are designed to ensure that the Ethereum network remains neutral and open even in the face of government pressure.
5. Ethereum Foundation’s Funding and Future Plans
The foundation currently holds $650 million in reserve funds, most of which are ETH, and consumes $100 million each year. Obviously, the appreciation of ETH is also crucial to the operation of the foundation. Although the foundation has expanded to more than 300 people, Vitalik and the team realize that effectively managing resources and promoting the appreciation of ETH is an important task at present.
6. Facing competition from Bitcoin: What is the unique value of Ethereum?
When asked how Ethereum can remain competitive if Bitcoin successfully develops the Layer2 ecosystem, Vitalik gave four answers: greater data availability, the decentralized advantages of POS, the power of the Ethereum community and culture, and Ethereum's continued promotion of innovation. However, these answers still seem vague to some community members. In particular, Vitalik's position in the discussion of POS and POW security has caused further controversy.
Summary: The urgency of application layer innovation
Throughout the AMA, although the Ethereum team has made a lot of efforts in technology expansion and network neutrality, it still lacks a strong response to the lack of innovation in the application layer, which is the most concerned issue in the current community. The continued slump in ETH prices and the potential diversion of the value of the main network by Layer2 still require the Ethereum team to formulate a clearer strategy in the future.
For the Ethereum community, the current challenge is not only to optimize the technical level, but also to promote the appreciation of ETH through innovative applications. Whether Vitalik and the team can come up with practical solutions in the future will determine the performance of Ethereum in the next round of market cycles. #小非农增幅创3年多新低 #ETH🔥🔥🔥🔥 #以太坊基金会 #英伟达财报 $ETH $BTC $BNB
