Vitalik's speech at the Korea Blockchain Week: Cryptocurrencies need to prove their practical utility in the next decade, and ZK will ultimately defeat OP
The next ten years are crucial for blockchain technology, and crypto applications need to prove their utility in the public market.Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
Recently, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin attended an event during Korea Blockchain Week. In a private event, he expressed an optimistic view about the future of Ethereum, but he believes there will be significant challenges ahead, outlining three core points:
(1) Cryptocurrencies need to prove their real utility in the next decade, rather than relying solely on narratives and expectations, especially when scalability is no longer an issue; some projects may be disproven.
(2) ZK-Rollups will ultimately outperform Optimistic Rollups, and some projects on Optimistic may eventually shift to ZK.
(3) Ethereum needs to consider the development of quantum computing at some distant point in the future.
Vitalik stated that the next decade is crucial for blockchain technology, and crypto applications need to demonstrate their utility in the public market.
"I believe the next 10 years is the time for cryptocurrencies to transform; it should not be based on promises of future utility but rather prove to be genuinely useful," he said. "Many applications are theoretically promising, but due to current scalability issues, they are completely unfeasible," he added. "If a blockchain application cannot operate on Ethereum after its 'merge' to Proof-of-Stake and the launch of ZK Rollups, then it is very likely that using blockchain from the start was 'meaningless.'"
When discussing the scalability issues facing Ethereum, Vitalik expressed anticipation for the upcoming Layer 2 solutions. His stance is that ZK-Rollups based on zero-knowledge proofs will outperform Optimistic Rollups, despite being a more challenging technology.
He said, "In the long run, ZK-Rollups will ultimately defeat Optimistic Rollups because they have fundamental advantages, such as not requiring a 7-day withdrawal period." He also noted that building ZK-Rollups is quite difficult, "ZK is a technology that is just hard to establish, with many challenges, while Optimistic Rollup technology is more mature." He still believes that some of today's Optimistic projects will succeed but anticipates that some will pivot in the future. "They will do well. But I fully expect that eventually, they will switch to ZK at some point."
Finally, Vitalik added that Ethereum needs to consider the development of quantum computing at some distant point in the future. "For quantum safety, we must upgrade at some point," he said, considering a shift to 'new forms of cryptography' that can resist potential attacks. Crypto skeptics often point out that quantum computing could stifle blockchain, but Vitalik indicated that crypto builders will need time to make changes. "We have been in close contact with AI researchers who are continuing to study this issue and create better algorithms," he said. "But that is still far off, possibly 10, 20, or 30 years from now."
