Vitalik Buterin is one of the co-founders of Ethereum and a visionary and creative person. He has profound insights and contributions to the development of Ethereum. On September 6, in a speech at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, he shared the speech "The Past and Present of Ethereum", reviewing the birth, development and challenges of Ethereum from multiple perspectives such as technology, society and philosophy. And looked forward to the future and vision of Ethereum. This article will analyze and summarize the core ideas he shared based on the content of his speech, and combine it with a theory about human civilization and historical processes to evaluate the status and value of Ethereum and Vitalik's ideas in the development of the Internet.

1. Review Vitalik’s speech

First, let’s review the five aspects Vitalik mentioned in his speech:

• The birth of Ethereum: Vitalik introduced his initial experience with Bitcoin and blockchain technology, and why he wanted to create a more versatile and flexible blockchain platform, namely Ethereum. He believes that although Bitcoin is a revolutionary innovation, it can only support one specific application, namely a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. He wanted to create a blockchain platform capable of supporting any type of applications and protocols, which is how the concepts of smart contracts and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) were born.

• From the imagination to implementation of “smart contracts”: Vitalik explains what smart contracts are and how they make blockchain technology more powerful and diverse. He believes that smart contracts are self-executing computer programs that can run on the blockchain. They can implement various logic and functions, such as transfers, voting, auctions, crowdfunding, etc. He also introduced some early smart contract projects. He believes that many other things that exist today are basically very similar to the ideas 10 years ago. The same is true for the research on consensus mechanisms. The consensus mechanism has greatly improved security and reduced the energy consumption of Ethereum. Reduced by more than 99.9%. From trying to understand the nature of state proofs, and the various options for different state spaces, eventually converging on a specific version that actually works.

• The transformation of “consensus mechanism”: Vitalik described the process and reasons for the transformation of Ethereum from the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. He believes that although PoW is an effective distributed consensus tool, it also has many shortcomings, such as high energy consumption, low efficiency, and vulnerability to attacks. He believes that PoS is a better consensus mechanism because it can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, improve network security and efficiency, and increase the participation and incentive mechanism of validators. He also introduced the Casper protocol, a PoS-based consensus protocol that aims to achieve the goals of Ethereum 2.0.

• Ethereum’s technical progress and challenges: Vitalik summarized some of the technical progress and challenges that Ethereum has made in the past few years, mainly involving four aspects: privacy, consensus security, smart contract security and scalability . He believes that these aspects are the main problems facing Ethereum, and they are also the direction for Ethereum’s continuous improvement and innovation. He introduced some solutions, such as zk-SNARKs (zero-knowledge proof), Tornado Cash (privacy mixer), proof of innocence, state trees (Verkle trees), account abstraction, sharding, State Channels, Rollup, etc.

• Back to reality and practical applications: Vitalik shared an experience he had in Argentina, where he was impressed by how many people were using Ethereum, which he believes illustrates the power of Ethereum for those without banking systems or who are politically oppressed value and meaning. He also proposed a vision for the future of Ethereum, namely Web3, which is a decentralized network space based on blockchain, smart contracts, cryptocurrency and other technologies, which aims to create a more open, transparent, and more A democratic, more decentralized cyberspace gives users full control and ownership of their data and identities, eliminates the intervention and manipulation of intermediaries and monopolies, and promotes innovation and collaboration.

2. What does Vitalik think the future of Ethereum is?

From the content of his speech, we can see that Vitalik has a clear and ambitious vision for the future of Ethereum. He not only expects Ethereum to achieve higher security, efficiency and scalability at the technical level, but also expects Ethereum to achieve higher privacy protection, social influence and Web3 compatibility at the social level. He believes these goals will make Ethereum a more sustainable and inclusive network capable of supporting more users and applications while reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. He believes that these goals will also make Ethereum a more open and transparent network, able to give users full control and ownership of their data and identity, eliminating the intervention and manipulation of intermediaries and monopolies. He believes that these goals will also make Ethereum a more democratic and decentralized network, able to promote innovation and collaboration, and support a variety of applications and protocols, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized autonomy Organizations (DAO), non-fungible tokens (NFT), Metaverse, etc.

Specifically, he has the following expectations and prospects for the future of Ethereum:

• Ethereum can achieve higher security, efficiency and scalability by completing the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade project and introducing the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, sharding technology and other improvements. These technologies will make Ethereum a more sustainable and inclusive network capable of supporting more users and applications while reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.

• Ethereum can achieve higher privacy protection by using cryptographic technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to protect users’ transactions and identity information on Ethereum from being leaked or tracked. Privacy is not only a fundamental right, but also a security requirement and competitive advantage. Ethereum can solve some legal and social challenges, such as proof of innocence, to increase users' trust and acceptance of privacy systems.

• Ethereum can achieve higher smart contract security by improving programming languages, tools, frameworks and standards to prevent risks such as hacking, malfunctions, forks or censorship. Smart contract security is one of the biggest challenges facing Ethereum and one of the most difficult problems to solve. Ethereum can achieve higher account abstraction and increase users' control and flexibility over their own data and identity by allowing users to customize the status execution rules of their accounts.

• Ethereum can achieve higher Web3 compatibility by supporting and promoting a new Internet paradigm, which aims to create a more open, more transparent, more democratic, and more decentralized cyberspace. Web3 has many different components and application areas, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), non-fungible tokens (NFT), metaverse, etc. Ethereum enables higher social impact by providing an alternative to those who are unbanked or politically oppressed, allowing them to enjoy the advantages of decentralization and global permissionlessness.

These goals not only reflect Vitalik’s clear plan for the development direction of Ethereum technology, but also reflect Vitalik’s deep insight into the values ​​and social needs of cyberspace. Vitalik believes that cyberspace should be a more free, fair, collaborative, and innovative space, rather than a space controlled, manipulated, exploited, and censored by centralized institutions or monopolies. Vitalik believes that cyberspace should be a more inclusive, diverse, open and transparent space, rather than a space that is isolated, excluded, closed and hidden. Vitalik believes that cyberspace should be a more secure, efficient, private, and fair space, rather than a space that is attacked, wasted, leaked, and discriminated against.

3. The development of Ethereum and the status and value of Vitalik’s thought in the development process of the Internet

In order to evaluate the development of Ethereum and the status and value of Vitalik's ideas in the development process of the Internet, we can combine a theory about human civilization and historical processes. This theory can be summarized as follows:

• Human civilization and historical processes are not the result of human choice or design, but the promotion and expression of natural will.

• As civilization develops and the amount of information increases, humans need to design their own future social model through ideological models and logical models.

• These models are not original creations, but products driven by the process of civilization and personified expressions of nature's will.

• If the new ideas and new models we create are an inevitable node in a natural process, then it means that our future survival may only be realized when this node unfolds.

• Only those models that truly convey the inherent requirements of nature's will can become the cornerstone of human civilization, otherwise it will become a disaster for the development of human society.

Based on these theories, we can evaluate the development of Ethereum and Vitalik’s ideas from the following aspects:

The development of Ethereum should be a natural development. They are not the result of human choice or design, but a new technical paradigm and network paradigm brought about by blockchain technology as a distributed consensus tool. Blockchain technology itself is a promotion and expression of natural will, because it uses cryptography, economic incentives, game theory and other natural and social science principles to achieve decentralization, security, transparency and other goals. These goals are also in line with human values and needs for data and identity rights, freedom, justice, and collaboration in cyberspace.

The development of Ethereum is a product promoted by the process of civilization. They are ideological models and logical models generated as the amount of information increases with the development of civilization. They try to design a better future social model. They are also personified expressions of natural will. They reflect the inherent requirements and goals of natural will itself, and are also in line with human values and needs for data and identity rights, freedom, justice, and collaboration in cyberspace. These requirements and goals also reflect human beings’ higher-level needs in cyberspace, such as security, efficiency, privacy, fairness, and inclusiveness.

Vitalik ideas are a cornerstone that can lead and promote the construction of human civilization. They are innovative and forward-looking. They create a new technology paradigm and network paradigm, that is, a decentralized platform based on blockchain technology and a Web3 network. space. They provide a new possibility and opportunity for human beings to achieve higher autonomy, interactivity, diversity and creativity in cyberspace. They are also influential and valuable, and they have attracted a large number of developers, investors, users and communities to participate, exploring and implementing a variety of applications and protocols, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), Centralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), Non-Fungible Token (NFT), Metaverse, etc. They provide a new kind of services and benefits for mankind, allowing mankind to enjoy higher security, efficiency, privacy, fairness and inclusiveness in cyberspace.

In conclusion

Vitalik thought is a personified expression of natural will and a cornerstone of civilization construction in the history of human technological development. Even if this new idea has not been widely accepted, it shows that this new idea has potential huge value in the future. Ethereum's position in Web3 and the development process of the Internet is very important and influential, and it is also very promising and promising. The ideas advocated by Vitalik are also very important and influential in the history of technological development. They are also very far-sighted and creative. The cornerstone of Ethereum is blockchain technology, which is the core and foundation of Ethereum and the greatest advantage and feature of Ethereum. We believe that the future of Ethereum lies in Web3, which is a new Internet paradigm advocated and supported by Ethereum, which aims to create a more open, transparent, democratic, and decentralized online space.

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