Analysis of Ethereum Technology Development Trends and Opportunities

Throughout the history of the Ethereum developer community, many cutting-edge technology discussions have ultimately evolved into widely used products, from decentralized exchanges to lending platforms, and then to scalability solutions and data availability solutions. This trend not only reflects the evolution of technology but also provides investors with potential layout opportunities.

In early 2025, by analyzing Ethereum's roadmap, recent developer conferences, and upcoming technical discussions such as the Pectra upgrade, we can capture some key information and future development directions.

Ethereum Roadmap Analysis

The development roadmap of Ethereum has always been an important reference for predicting future trends. It includes several key stages: the Merge, Surge, Verge, Purge, Verify, and Scale. Each of these stages has its focus, covering various aspects from the transition of consensus mechanisms to scalability improvements, resolution of MEV issues, optimization of underlying architecture, and more.

• Merging Phase: The transition from proof of work to proof of stake has been completed, while the consensus protocol is still being optimized.
• Surge phase: Focus on enhancing scalability and providing better support for rollup technology.
• Purification Phase: Focused on reducing MEV-related issues, including lowering builder concentration and optimizing value capture mechanisms.
• Verification Phase: Plan to upgrade the underlying data structure from Merkle tree to Verkle tree, and explore the zero-knowledge proof of EVM.
• Cleanup phase: Aimed at reducing node maintenance pressure through data archiving and technical debt cleanup.
• Expansion phase: Involves cutting-edge improvements, including EVM underlying optimizations, account abstraction, and the application of new cryptographic technologies.

Developer Conference Insights

At the recent Ethereum developer conference, a series of current challenges and possible solutions were discussed. Among them, the concept of Beam Chain attracted widespread attention, although its implementation path may take about 5 years.

Rollup technology remains a hot topic, especially regarding how to address the liquidity fragmentation and interaction challenges between different rollups. In addition, the conference also discussed the technical maturity of L2 projects, chain abstraction, pre-confirmation mechanisms, cryptographic applications, and other cutting-edge issues.

Pectra Upgrade Highlights

The Pectra upgrade, expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, will bring several important changes:

1. EIP-7702 introduces account abstraction functionality, allowing ordinary external accounts to temporarily convert into smart contract accounts, which is expected to improve user experience.

2. The EIP-7691 plan aims to increase the number of blobs per block, further reducing rollup costs and enhancing Ethereum's data availability competitiveness.

3. EIP-7251 proposes to raise the staking limit from 32 Ether to 2048 Ether, which will simplify operations for large staking service providers and whales.

Future Opportunities Outlook

Based on the aforementioned technological advancements, we can foresee significant opportunities in the following areas:

1. Rollup Interoperability: Various solutions such as rollup-based, shared sequencers, and cross-chain intentions are competing. By 2025, we may see the winners among these solutions emerge.

2. Account Abstraction: The implementation of EIP-7702 will bring new development opportunities for account abstraction projects, especially for those early participants who are well-prepared and may achieve significant growth.

3. Cryptographic Applications: With the maturity of zkEVM and zkVM frameworks, as well as the combination of ZKP with MPC, FHE, and other technologies, we may see more innovative applications. The application of zero-knowledge proofs in areas such as email verification and TLS verification may also increase.

Overall, the Ethereum ecosystem is undergoing a series of significant technological changes. These changes will not only enhance network performance and user experience but may also create new opportunities for developers and investors. Keeping a close eye on these development trends will help grasp the future direction of blockchain technology and applications.