Vitalik Shares Five Regrets About the Initial Design of Ethereum

Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a surprising speech at the ETHBerlin event, reflecting on some regrets in the early design of Ethereum. His remarks not only evoked memories of the birth of Ethereum in 2014 but also provided new ideas for the future development of this cryptocurrency, which has a market value of 448 billion dollars.

Currently, Ethereum has become a representative of decentralized finance, with its ecosystem valued at over $63 billion. The U.S. SEC has just partially approved a spot Ethereum ETF, and the world's largest asset management company has also launched a tokenized fund on the Ethereum network. However, Vitalik believes that Ethereum is still misunderstood by many: "Bitcoin's positioning is simple; it's digital gold. But when it comes to Ethereum, people often ask, 'What exactly is Ethereum?'"

In response to the question of how to rebuild Ethereum, Vitalik raised five main regrets:

1. High Virtual Machine Bit Count: The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) opted for 256-bit processing instead of the more common 64-bit or 32-bit. This has led to inefficiencies and the generation of redundant data.

2. Smart Contract Complexity: Early developers should focus more on simplifying the writing process of smart contracts, reducing the number of code lines to improve transparency and verifiability.

3. Delay in adopting PoS: Vitalik believes that a simplified version of the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism should have been adopted earlier, rather than spending a lot of time pursuing a perfect PoS implementation. He stated that if a simple PoS had been adopted in 2018, it could have saved a lot of resources.

4. Missing Automatic Logging Feature: The automatic logging feature for Ethereum transfers should have existed from the very beginning, but it became a later improvement proposal (EIP). This feature is crucial for tracking the flow of funds, especially against the backdrop of the rise of smart wallets.

5. Cryptographic Algorithm Choice: Vitalik stated that if he could choose again, he would use the SHA-2 instead of the Keccak cryptographic algorithm. Currently, Ethereum uses an earlier iteration of SHA-3, which has led to compatibility issues with other systems.

Despite these design regrets, Vitalik remains optimistic about the development of Ethereum. He stated: "I am really happy to see the execution capabilities of the Ethereum core development team improving every year. The current team is capable of effectively and safely correcting these early mistakes."

This candid review not only showcases the development history of Ethereum but also points the way for its future improvements. With continuous technological advancements and the enhancement of team capabilities, Ethereum is expected to address these historical issues and continue to lead innovation in blockchain technology.