Ethereum’s Slim-Down: Ozempic for the Blockchain?

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Ethereum recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and now, according to Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, the
second-largest blockchain needs to slim down.

His concept, called Lean Ethereum, aims to optimize the blockchain’s extensive codebase and protect it from future
threats posed by code-breaking
quantum computing
.

Drake believes this streamlining could also lead to better performance, including an increased number of transactions
processed.

He stated, “Lean Ethereum is a commitment for generations to ensure Ethereum remains operational under any circumstances – to
scale it effectively without sacrificing its core values.”

Currently, this is only a proposal. However, it seems to have the implicit support of the Ethereum Foundation. They published
an
explanation
on their blog on July 31st.

Lean Ethereum emerges six months after Ethereum experienced a
minor setback
, when longtime followers became concerned about its cryptocurrency’s poor performance relative to Solana and other
competitors.

Now, Ethereum seems to
have regained
momentum. Exchange-traded funds and treasury management companies are heavily investing in Ether.

Furthermore, U.S. legislators
have enacted laws
allowing financial institutions and technology corporations to create stablecoins, a digital asset class largely dependent on
Ethereum.

Lean Ethereum originated from a presentation Drake gave at the previous year’s Devcon, where he presented the “beam chain,” an
enhancement to Ethereum’s Beacon chain.

As Tim Craig
reported
, Ethereum consists of two levels: the Beacon chain, which oversees Ether staking and transaction tracking, and the execution
layer, where users initiate transactions.

By May, Drake communicated to colleagues that his perspective had widened. This shift was influenced, in part, by a
cease-and-desist order
he received from another project that had trademarked “Beam.”

Drake
told his peers
in May that, “If we are going to change the name, it needs to be a catchy and memorable one.”

According to Drake, discovering a new, meme-worthy name could benefit the broader Ethereum community.

The intent behind the beam chain was to improve upon the beacon chain, offering simplified and more streamlined code—essentially,
a leaner approach.

Drake stated that significant opportunities exist for optimizing the execution layer as well.

Sophia Gold, an engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, commented, “Ethereum is entering its Ozempic era,” alluding to the popular
weight-loss medication.

The end result? A substantial boost in transaction processing, according to Drake’s July 31st
blog post
.

Drake wrote that a Lean Ethereum could potentially enable an impressive throughput: 10,000 transactions per second on Ethereum
itself, and 10 million on layer 2 blockchains. This represents increases of 49,900% and 4,999,900%, respectively, compared
to recent months, according to
data
from L2BEAT.

While scalability is often seen as compromising decentralization, Drake claims that Lean Ethereum can achieve both.

He asserts that advances in
zero-knowledge
technology, data availability sampling, and hash-based cryptography will allow Ethereum enthusiasts to have both scalability
and decentralization.

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Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ DeFi correspondent in New York. Have a tip? Contact him at

aleks@dlnews.com

.