Scaling Ethereum for Unstoppable Applications
By Andrew Gillette on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Twitter: @Infosec_Andy
The challenge posed by scaling is by far the greatest hurdle to Ethereum’s widespread adoption and success. Scaling means handling the vast, unthinkable data needs of a global network that never switches off. It means running applications for millions or potentially *billions* of users in the not too distant future. It means having a true *world computer*.
Ethereum’s big idea is to become exactly that world computer — an unstoppable, owner-less, decentralized computer that runs smart contracts for everyone. And by everyone I mean literally *everyone*. But, as incredible as such a computer may sound, getting there is a whole other story.
There isn’t much use for a world computer if it is too costly to develop applications on it, as is the current scenario. Developing an application on Ethereum is currently prohibitively expensive due to high gas fees. How, then, does Ethereum plan to address scaling issues, and will these solutions bring the cost of gas down to make the network friendlier to decentralized app developers?
Let’s take a deeper look at these issues.
How Will Ethereum Scale?
The impatience surrounding Ethereum’s switch to proof of stake is in part misguided simply because many of those waiting expect that PoS will alleviate scaling issues. Unfortunately, that isn’t entirely the case, although the switch to PoS will bring about some indirect scalability benefits.
Ethereum’s switch from PoW to PoS is due in the network’s Casper upgrade sometime in 2019. A large part of the reason for Ethereum’s current low transaction per second capability is its reliance on proof of work mining. In a proof of work system, the time between blocks is tied to the amount of time it takes to guess the current block’s target hash. The move away from PoW and over to Casper will mean that time between blocks should come down to roughly 4 seconds — that estimate is conservative and there is a strong likelihood that the actual block time will be much lower.
With less standing between blocks and validators in Casper (PoW systems necessitate powerful hardware and absurd amounts of electricity whereas PoS systems have significantly less energy consumption demands), block confirmation latency will come down significantly. It is important to note that lower block confirmation latency does *not* equate to a faster blockchain in terms of transactions per second. In order to improve transactions per second and truly scale, Ethereum will need a different solution.
The proposed and in-development solution for bringing Ethereum scalability of at least 1 million transactions per second is called *sharding*. Sharding will directly address the network’s transaction per second efficiency which will work in concert with compatibility improvements brought about in Casper.
One of those improvements is based on a design found in traditional scaling solutions. In a distributed ledger, scaling can be achieved by putting transactions that have no relation and *will never* relate with each other in different databases. By doing so, the network becomes much lighter and, with sharding integrated, will result in a dynamic, versatile, and highly scalable world computer.
If you’re wondering what sharding is, don’t despair. Essentially, sharding is a base-layer protocol that will be built into Ethereum which allows for the aforementioned “lightening-up” of the network. Rather than have every network validator process and validate every single transaction (as is the current design), sharding will break the network up into small, localized databases called shards. This way, certain validators will only handle certain transactions, and no one validator will have to handle them all. This design effectively makes the blockchain more manageable and places efficiency and transaction throughput in another galaxy.
Now, that’s all well and good, but will either Casper or sharding bring the cost of gas down sufficiently to enable developers to start building the unstoppable applications Ethereum is meant to run?
The Cost of Building Unstoppable Applications
Casper is not expected to have a big impact on the costs of gas *but* they should subside somewhat. The reason for this is, as mentioned, Casper, which is not aimed at being a scalability solution, *will* lessen stress on the network which should, in turn, enable the network to better handle high-traffic resulting in lower fees.
Sharding, an on-chain scaling solution, will create a context in which there are fewer transactions competing to be validated per shard. This lessens network load substantially and so, with less competition for validators to contend with, gas prices are expected to fall substantially. As sharding becomes increasingly efficient, gas should fall correspondingly.
Lastly, there are two major off-chain scaling solutions that dApp developers can leverage once they are live. **Plasma** offers a solution similar to sharding except it is not performed on the base layer of the Ethereum blockchain. Instead, it branches off of the main-chain (or root chain) and creates what are called child-chains. Child chains are similar to shards in that they are lighter, smaller, local databases which refer back to the root chain for truth.
**Raiden** is similar to the Lightning Network in that it allows for state channels to be opened up between two nodes A and B. This state channel allows for data transaction between the two nodes to take place off of the main chain thereby lessening the main chain’s load.
Gas fees when using Plasma and Raiden will be significantly cheaper than when using Ethereum itself because they offer lightweight, localized transactions to take place away from the root chain.
In Summary
Developing and hosting applications on Ethereum versus on centralized commercial hosting is still a ways off from being economically viable for developers. But, despite this, ecosystem upgrades *are* on the way and in a state of advanced development. With Casper, sharding, and off-chain scaling solutions on the horizon, developers can look forward to competitive, lowered gas prices as Ethereum’s world computer comes closer to fruition.
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The purpose of ALTCOIN MAGAZINE is to educate the world on crypto and to bring it to the hands and the minds of the masses. This article was written and composed by Andrew Gillette on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE.
