Vitalik Buterin has a plan. The Ethereum co-founder wants to make cross-chain hopping a breeze. It's all about making Ethereum's layer-2 (L2) networks play nice together.
Buterin's optimistic. He thinks smooth L2 interactions are within reach. But it's not a solo mission. He's calling for a team effort from the Ethereum community.
Several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are in the pipeline. They're aimed at boosting L2 compatibility. EIP-3370 is one of them. It introduces a new address standard. The goal? Make chain-specific addresses easier to read.
EIP-7683 is another big one. It's all about creating a standard communication protocol for L2 networks. This could make asset trading across chains a lot simpler. Right now, it's a bit of a headache.
Then there's EIP-3668. It's proposing a way for Ethereum smart contracts to access off-chain data more easily. Buterin calls these "layer-2 light clients". They could make life easier for developers working with big data sets.
Buterin's also talking about "cross-L2-replayable account state updates". It's a mouthful, but the idea is pretty cool. It lets L2 networks get recent layer-1 updates without compromising on security or speed.
Looking ahead, Buterin's got more tricks up his sleeve. He mentioned keystore rollups and proof aggregation as part of "phase 2" updates. These could further boost L2 compatibility.
Buterin reckons all rollups will eventually use zero-knowledge (zk) tech to finalize transactions on Ethereum. But he's not holding his breath. He thinks it'll take more than five years.
There's big money at stake here. Investment firm VanEck predicts Ethereum L2 networks could hit a $1 trillion market cap in six years. That's no small change.
But it's not all smooth sailing. Buterin's worried about overly complex L2 solutions. He's calling for a more balanced approach. The blockchain world seems to agree that Layer 1 should keep it simple. Let Layer 2 handle the fancy stuff.
This L2 revolution could be a game-changer. It's all about bundling transactions and submitting them in batches to Layer 1. The end result? Faster, cheaper transactions for everyone. Buterin's vision is ambitious, but if anyone can pull it off, it's the guy who helped create Ethereum in the first place.