Ethereum Co-Founder Buterin Outlines 2024 Development Focus on Privacy, Scalability

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared his vision for the future of the Ethereum network, outlining key areas of focus for development this year. In a recent post on a blockchain-based social media platform, Buterin highlighted several initiatives aimed at enhancing the network's infrastructure, smart contract execution, and privacy.

Buterin's update comes at a significant milestone for the Ethereum ecosystem. According to data from GrowThePie, the weekly number of unique addresses interacting with Ethereum reached a new high of over 15.4 million, with nearly 13.45 million of these interactions occurring on layer-2 protocols. This surge in activity underscores the growing adoption and engagement within the Ethereum community.

Privacy has been a recurring theme in Buterin's recent communications. He has argued that enhancing privacy should be a top priority for developers and has proposed various solutions to bolster privacy on Ethereum. Earlier this month, he published a short-term privacy roadmap that detailed technical solutions to address the network's transparency issues.

Buterin's focus on forward-looking research aligns with recent changes at the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit organization responsible for developing the Ethereum ecosystem. The co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation recently noted that Buterin now has more time dedicated to research and exploration, which could accelerate major long-term breakthroughs for the network.

One of the key areas Buterin plans to research this year is single-slot finality on Ethereum. This proposed upgrade aims to allow blocks to become final in a single slot within 12 seconds, significantly reducing the time needed to confirm transactions irreversibly and enhancing user experience. Additionally, Buterin is exploring the concept of making Ethereum stateless, where nodes would no longer store the full state but instead require users to provide the necessary state data with each transaction. This could potentially improve scalability and decentralization.

Buterin also emphasized the importance of improving the ecosystem's cybersecurity, resilience, and decentralization. He set objectives that should apply to client software, including third-party wallets, to ensure that Ethereum remains highly secure, free of centralized intermediaries, and privacy-friendly.

Beyond protocol improvements, Buterin plans to focus on enhancing communication tools, information sharing, and the social layer surrounding Ethereum. This includes governance changes, resource management, and open-source development funding. He also hinted at developing better encrypted messaging, software documentation, and new types of communication tools, as well as prediction markets and related technology.

Buterin's vision for Ethereum extends to lower-level development, including cryptography, operating systems, hardware, physical infrastructure, and biological defense. He also mentioned areas of development where he is not personally involved, such as plans to increase Ethereum's gas limit as a short-term scalability solution and peer-to-peer systems.

Overall, Buterin's outline for Ethereum's future development reflects a comprehensive approach to enhancing the network's infrastructure, security, and user experience. His focus on privacy, scalability, and decentralization aligns with the growing needs of the Ethereum community and positions the network for continued growth and innovation.