Developers Rally Around Ethereum 1x, A New Roadmap for Faster Scaling

Originally thought to be an addition to an upgrade called ethereum 2.0 - ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has referred to it recently by an older name "Serenity" - the roadmap for this upgrade changed in June to include new design specifications that are projected to delay activation.

As explained to CoinDesk by Schoedon, developers are now more certain ethereum 2.0 will not go into production before the year 2020.

With plans for ethereum 1x originally discussed during in-person meetings at an ethereum developer conference, Devcon4, earlier this month, certain members of the community were disgruntled at the lack of public involvement.

According to meeting minutes from earlier discussions at DevCon4 published by Dan Heyman, the program director of ethereum blockchain development group PegaSys, there are currently four different working groups tasked with advancing ethereum 1x. One of these groups, led by ethereum core developer Alexey Akhunov, is leading the effort to introduce storage rent to the ethereum platform.

The larger the state, as Akhunov told CoinDesk, the longer it takes for new computers joining the ethereum network to download such copies and maintain them.

As a result of new blocks being relayed throughout the network more quickly, ethereum miners are also expected to be able to add in a greater number of transactions per block and collect a larger amount of transaction fees.

Some of the development efforts going into ethereum 1x are focussed on running simulations to test higher gas limits, given that it's a key area of research around the wider progress toward relieving scaling pressures faced by the network today.

Ethereum 1x - outside of addressing issues to do with blockchain state size - is also expected to feature improvements to transaction throughput on ethereum.

By putting forward an early implementation of eWASM - a new virtual machine that processes smart contract code - ethereum developers aim to leverage the new technology and create so-called "Precompiles" more easily.

Predicting the construction process of precompiles to get much "Easier" for ethereum core developers through the technology, Akhunov also added that once fully-tested, "The plan is to open eWASM for all smart contract developers."