Ethereum could soon enable thousands of transactions per second

Over the weekend, Ethereum went through a significant software upgrade, dubbed Istanbul.

It allowed the integration of a second layer scaling solution that promises to enable more than 3,000 transactions per second while maintaining decentralization and privacy.

Earlier this year, Matter Labs received a grant from the Ethereum Foundation for their work on a second layer scaling solution with zero-knowledge proofs.

"A successful solution to the scaling problem in public blockchains is not only a matter of high transaction throughput. It must also be defined as the ability of the system to meet the demands of millions of users without sacrificing decentralization. The prerequisites of mass crypto adoption include high speed, low cost, smooth UX, and privacy."

ZK Sync was designed to bring thousands of TPS to Ethereum while keeping the funds secure and maintaining a high degree of censorship-resistance.

With the help of ZK Rollup technology, the second layer solution can hold funds in a smart contract on the mainchain while computing and storing transactions off-chain.

Ethereum has been struggling with crippling congestion over the last few years.

"Scalability is a big bottleneck because the Ethereum blockchain is almost full. If you're a bigger organization, the calculus is that if we join, it will not only be more full but we will be competing with everyone for transaction space. It's already expensive and it will be even five times more expensive because of us."

Now, time will tell whether Matter Labs' second layer solution will indeed solve the scalability issues that the Ethereum network is facing.

Bring with it a "VISA-scale throughput" of thousands of transactions per second.