Ethereum\u2019s chief scientist said Ethereum is ready to support applications servicing millions of users following Dencun’s massive L2 fee reductions.<\/p>\n
Vitalik Buterin, the chief scientist and co-founder of Ethereum, penned a blog post calling on developers to pivot their focus towards building new applications that could serve millions of users following the activation of its Dencun upgrade earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Ethereum\u2019s highly-anticipated\u00a0Dencun fork<\/a>\u00a0went live on March 13, ushering fee\u00a0reductions<\/a>\u00a0of up to\u00a095%<\/a>\u00a0on Layer 2 networks supporting\u00a0EIP-4844<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the main upgrade included in Dencun. The fee reduction also precipitated\u00a0triple-digit<\/a>\u00a0increases in transaction volume on leading L2s.<\/p>\n Buterin described Dencun as the most significant Ethereum upgrade since\u00a0The Merge<\/a>, which transitioned the network to Proof of Stake consensus in September 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of two weeks ago, the two largest changes to the Ethereum blockchain \u2014 the switch to Proof of Stake, and the re-architecting to blobs \u2014 are behind us,\u201d Buterin\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With fees on many Layer 2s now sitting below six cents, Buterin issued a challenge to developers to begin building applications addressing non-financial use cases that could serve \u201cmillions\u201d of users.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty much every crypto application that is not financial speculation depends on low fees \u2014 and so while we have high fees, we should not be surprised that we mainly see financial speculation,\u201d Buterin said. \u201cNow that we have blobs, this key constraint that has been holding us back all this time is starting to melt away\u2026 What this means to developers is simple: we no longer have any excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Vitalik described the first nine years since Ethereum\u2019s mainnet launch as a \u201ctraining stage,\u201d with low fees setting the stage for large-scale applications to take flight on the network. He said the tools are now available to build protocols that are both \u201ccypherpunk and user-friendly,\u201d urging developers to work on new applications targeting mainstream use cases including identity, reputation, and governance.<\/p>\n \u201cEthereum is no longer just a financial ecosystem,\u201d Buterin continued. \u201cIt’s a full-stack replacement for large parts of \u2018centralized tech\u2019, and even provides some things that centralized tech does not… We are building tools for millions of people to use. Across the ecosystem, we need to fully readjust mindsets accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n Vitalik noted that more progress must be made on L2, including further mechanisms improving scalability, the efficiency of blobs, data compression, and security.<\/p>\n Buterin said that just five of the 47 Layer 2 networks tracked by L2beat have reached \u201cstage 1\u201d decentralization, meaning they have only \u201climited training wheels\u201d in place. In a previous post, Vitalik said stage 1 decentralization<\/a> means that a network boasts a fraud or validity proof scheme, at least a seven-day delay on upgrades, and a multisig account with at least six of eight signers if a security council can override transactions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nL2s need further development<\/h2>\n
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