Ethereum faces market challenges and community divisions in 2024, but Devcon 7 reaffirms the core values of decentralization and trusted neutrality, calling for a philosophy-driven technological development to benefit all humanity.
Author: Christine Kim
Translation: Blockchain in Plain Language
Ethereum is the most decentralized, valuable, and mature general-purpose blockchain in the world. Although it is essentially a technology, this year's Ethereum developer conference, Devcon, focused on the philosophical implications of Ethereum and how the principles and values driving the development of the Ethereum protocol have changed over the years.
1. A Tough Year for Ethereum
In 2024, based on the price of ETH and market sentiment, this year is particularly challenging for Ethereum.
Many critics believe that the cyberpunk values of decentralization, trusted neutrality, and censorship resistance within the Ethereum community have gradually weakened over time, or even been completely abandoned. Even within the Ethereum community, disagreements over these values have sparked controversy during the decision-making process of the Pectra upgrade, leading to heated debates on topics such as blob fee markets and issuance on the X platform.
Despite showcasing numerous technological innovations and announcements at Devcon 7, these did not provide the community with clear answers regarding Ethereum's long-term value and narrative. One of the most anticipated announcements this week was the Beam Chain released by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake. This is a radical proposal for a complete overhaul of the existing beacon chain consensus protocol.
Title: Keynote Speech by Justin Drake from the Ethereum Foundation at Devcon 7
Source: YouTube (@EthereumFoundation)
Although Drake detailed a series of new technical features aimed at enhancing Ethereum and its Layer-2 capabilities, this proposal did not gain widespread support from the community, nor did it provide an exciting "North Star" forward-looking goal like Ethereum's transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) known as The Merge, which inspired stakeholders.
For years, The Merge has been Ethereum's "North Star." This technological upgrade not only embodied environmental and decentralization values but was also recognized by almost the entire community. Since The Merge, no technological upgrade has aligned so clearly with Ethereum's core values, leading to confusion and divisions among Ethereum stakeholders regarding the future direction of technological development.
2. The Essence of Ethereum?
Rather than technical announcements, the discussions at Devcon on how to build Ethereum and develop on Ethereum were more thought-provoking, emphasizing the values of decentralization and trusted neutrality, deeply resonating with the attendees. Although all speakers had slightly different philosophical views on Ethereum, they unanimously agreed that Ethereum aims to create permissionless, transparent, and trust-minimized systems for the benefit of humanity.
If there were any doubts about the cyberpunk values driving Ethereum innovation, the discussions at Devcon 7 indicated that these values remain at the core of Ethereum's philosophy. When asked about the trade-offs between decentralization and performance, the four members of the "Consistency of Ethereum's Values and Philosophy" panel unanimously reiterated that the importance of decentralization outweighs performance and scalability.
Title: Panel Discussion on Ethereum's Values and Philosophy at Devcon 7
Speakers from left to right: Ahmad Bitar, Mark Tyneway, Nixo, Peter Szilagyi, and Phil Ngo
Source: YouTube (@EthereumFoundation)
In his keynote speech, Flashbots co-founder Philip Daian proposed four uncompromising characteristics of "Ethereum 3.0," including: permissionless, distributed, geo-economically decentralized, and efficient neutrality of builders. Daian urged the entire community to refocus on promoting and strengthening geographic diversity and permissionless design at all levels of the Ethereum tech stack, rather than prioritizing large-scale adoption through improved user experience.
Title: Keynote Speech by Flashbots Co-founder Philip Daian at Devcon 7
Source: YouTube (@EthereumFoundation)
"The problem is that if you combine 'sloppy research' with 'user experience drugs,' it creates a very bad situation. I believe this is the way ETH goes to zero. This combination of sloppy research and user experience drugs will erode our carefully built decentralized foundation, exposing us to risks of control and manipulation, ultimately rebuilding the systems we tried to escape from," Daian stated in his keynote speech.
Gnosis co-founder Martin Koeppelmann introduced the concept of "native Rollups" in his keynote speech. The design core of these Rollups is Ethereum's values, such as decentralization and trusted neutrality. For Koeppelmann, the practical significance lies in: these Rollups do not rely on multi-signature mechanisms that control their key functions, have Rollup proof systems with multiple implementation methods, and undergo rigorous testing of the Rollup codebase (i.e., "thousands of eyes on every line of code"), just like Ethereum itself.
Title: Keynote Speech by Gnosis Co-founder Martin Koeppelmann at Devcon 7
Source: YouTube (@EthereumFoundation)
Finally, the entire day's agenda at Devcon focused on exploring the philosophy of defensive acceleration ("d/acc"). Its founder, Vitalik Buterin, described it as: "d/acc is a philosophy, a set of technologies and protocols aimed at building technology that serves human autonomy as both a means and an end. Every technology we develop should be dedicated to achieving common freedom and happiness."
Many Devcon attendees received a booklet introducing the d/acc philosophy at the entrance ceremony, and on the last day of the conference, they received a booklet about the future of the Ethereum protocol, both written by Buterin.
Title: Keynote Speech by Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin at Devcon 7 "d/acc Exploration Day"
Source: YouTube (@EthereumFoundation)
The booklets and agenda from Devcon 7 emphasized the shared philosophical ideals among Ethereum developers, rather than just a common technical roadmap. Compared to any innovations, upcoming upgrades, or development teams within the ecosystem, the most striking "North Star" of the conference was the shared desire of attendees: to build permissionless, transparent, and trust-minimized systems for the benefit of all humanity.
Article link: https://www.hellobtc.com/kp/du/11/5552.html
Source: https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/learnings-from-devcon-2024/
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