Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin envisions that by 2030, the Ethereum network will use cryptographic proofs and off-chain computers to process more transactions, without requiring each participant to perform the same calculations repeatedly.

The system he proposed will enable users to independently verify results more efficiently, while also enhancing the privacy of payments, balances, and wallet activities.

Buterin indicates that after the planned upgrade to Hegot, the transformation of Ethereum will accelerate, but developers still need to make proof-of-work more affordable and ensure safe and coordinated parallel operation.

Buterin stated that by 2030, the internet he envisions might still be referred to as a blockchain, but its mode of operation would be vastly different from what it is today.

In a post titled “The cryptographic world computer”, Buterin describes a system that combines blockchain, cryptographic proofs, and a computer network that operates off-chain. This approach by 2030 will change the capabilities of Ethereum and the amount of content that users can independently verify.

Today, a computer that fully verifies Ethereum needs to repeatedly perform the calculations behind its transactions. For example, it checks whether someone has enough balance to make a transfer, as well as whether an application is running according to its rules.

Having many computers repeat these tasks helps to maintain the integrity of the network, but it also means that increasing the number of computers does not automatically lead to Ethereum processing more transactions, as each machine is busy checking a large amount of identical activities.

Buterin believes that new encryption tools can break this limitation.

A single computer can process a transaction and generate a brief mathematical proof to demonstrate that it has followed the rules. Other computers can check this proof much more quickly than repeating the entire original work. Additional spot checks help to ensure that transaction records are still accessible to anyone who wishes to view them.

This will allow different computers to share different tasks, while still being able to verify the results of each other.

Buterin wrote that Ethereum developers hoped to allocate work in this way ten years ago, but it was difficult at that time to ensure that each participant completed their part correctly.

At that time, it was not feasible, and there was only one main reason for that: a lack of verification.

Why are these changes necessary?

Ethereum's computers repeatedly perform a large amount of the same work to check whether transactions comply with the rules. This helps to maintain the integrity of the network, but it also limits the scalability benefits that can be obtained by adding more computers.

Earlier attempts at division of labor involved assigning specific tasks to smaller groups. Coordinating these groups could lead to delays, and if one of the groups failed, the entire broader network might have difficulty recovering.

Buterin believes that mathematical proofs provide a way to circumvent this issue. Computers performing a certain task can provide proofs to demonstrate that they have followed the rules, and others can check their answers without having to repeat the entire calculation.

Subsequently, computers can handle different tasks simultaneously, thereby bringing higher capacity and more independent checks to Ethereum.

However, Ethereum still needs to address issues where order is very important, such as in payments where both transactions use the same funds. Buterin suggests that the underlying work for these payments could be completed in advance, and then the proofs could be merged to reduce the amount of information recorded on the blockchain.

At the same time, his privacy plan also covers information that people may disclose simply by using their wallets.

Inquiring about one's balance usually requires asking an external server for a certain address. The server operator may know which accounts a person follows, even though the payment itself is private. Buterin aims to hide these requests along with the payment details and the rules governing how accounts are used to approve expenditures.

In this way, companies can maintain payment confidentiality without exposing their accounts due to employees querying their balances.

Why Privacy Has Become Crucial

Other crypto developers are also pursuing similar goals.

Zcash has already allowed users to send payments using encrypted addresses and amounts. According to the earlier analysis of ZecStats data by CoinDesk, on Friday, there were approximately 4.9 million ZEC tokens in its blocked pool. By early Sunday, the price of these tokens was around $1,660, representing a rise of about 15% from a week prior.

The researchers behind the paper Shielded Bitcoin published on Thursday proposed to draw on the payment design of Zcash for BTC. Their plan leaves the actual mechanisms for depositing and withdrawing Bitcoin to be studied separately in subsequent research.

Related Reading:Bitcoin may soon be able to achieve a "shielded" level of privacy similar to Zcash without changing any rules.

Therefore, Ethereum's own plans still require a great deal of engineering work. The generation of proofs must become efficient enough to be widely used. Computers handling different tasks must also coordinate updates to the same balance and application records without interfering with each other.

Buterin still lists the limitations of complex applications in terms of cost and privacy for the year 2030. He envisions that payments will become final within about 8 to 32 seconds, which means the network will consider them irreversible.

He expects that Hegot á, which is planned to be launched next year, will become the last “normal” fork of Ethereum, and its technical foundation will be very familiar to those who worked on that network in 2015.

Subsequent upgrades will increasingly rely on mathematical proofs, tools used to check for software errors, and security mechanisms designed to withstand future quantum computers.

"Starting from Hegota, this transformation will become the main storyline of Ethereum,"He wrote."The ultimate result is: computing that is cheaper, more scalable, more private, and higher in security than anything that could be achieved with just the technology of the previous generation."

"This is the computer of the crypto world."