Join us on a journey through the dynamic world of blockchain innovation as we delve into the highlights and significance of EthCC 2023, held in Paris, France from July 17th to 20th. With over 5000 attendees and a diverse representation of projects and people, including prominent names like 1inch, Polygon, ZkSync, Safe, Metamask, Lens, as well as notable figures such as Jordi Baylina and Sandy Carter from Polygon, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, this event was a true convergence of the brightest minds in the space.

The importance of EthCC 2023 cannot be overstated. It served as a platform where pioneers and experts in the Ethereum ecosystem gathered to discuss groundbreaking developments and foster innovation. This year the conference itself was more infrastructure-oriented than Dapp-oriented. Participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas, share firsthand experiences, and gain new insights that could potentially shape the future of decentralized technologies.

The history of the event dates back to its inception as an Ethereum Community Conference. Over the years, it has grown exponentially, becoming a prominent fixture in the blockchain calendar. EthCC has consistently provided an avenue for networking, learning, and collaborating, making it a pivotal event for the industry.

At the heart of EthCC 2023, DeCommas’ CEO, Saltee, was there to witness and share eye-opening observations.

Vitalik Buterin Speech

At the EthCC, Vitalik Buterin, provided valuable insights into the future of Ethereum, highlighting ongoing developments and the long-term vision. His speech covered diverse topics, including the transition to PoS, sharding, Verkle trees, state expiry, and Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs).

Ethereum has implemented these technologies and improvements to scale effectively. PoS promotes energy efficiency and scalability. Sharding divides the blockchain for simultaneous transaction processing. Verkle Trees optimize storage, and State Expiry manages blockchain growth. EIPs drive community-driven upgrades, enhancing scalability and functionality. These measures allow Ethereum to handle more transactions efficiently, supporting widespread adoption and a growing ecosystem of decentralized applications.

Buterin emphasized Ethereum’s goal of becoming a more powerful, robust, secure, and decentralized system based on these concepts.

Switching to PoS improves Ethereum’s monetary policy predictability and security. Sharding and rollups will make Ethereum much faster, handling up to 100,000 transactions per second.

Vitalik also discussed the concept of account abstraction. Account abstraction in crypto refers to the concept of separating the execution of smart contracts from account management, allowing users to pay transaction fees in assets other than the native cryptocurrency. It could lead to improved multisigs, smart contract wallets, and social recovery wallets. He envisions Ethereum’s layer separation vision, optimizing for safety and predictability in Layer 1 while achieving rapid iteration and high scalability in Layer 2.

Photo by @EthCC

Also, Vitalik acknowledged that some degree of enshrining may be necessary for the success of account abstraction. Mike Neuder explained that implementing an Ethereum change called PEPC could achieve comparable results to the implementation of Eigenlayer.

Photo by @MikeIppolito_

Account Abstraction

Account Abstraction is a groundbreaking concept in blockchain technology that can turn every account into a programmable smart contract. It allows for flexible user authentication, enhances security, and opens up new possibilities for features like multi-signature wallets and 2-factor authentication. This paradigm shift aims to scale the user experience of self-custody on the blockchain, making it accessible to billions of users. Its potential applications span across enterprises, streaming platforms, theme parks, and more. Account Abstraction represents a significant advancement towards widespread blockchain adoption.

This opens up possibilities for creative gas management solutions. For instance, Arbitrum Improvement Proposal #2 has recently been passed, enhancing support for Account Abstraction and making development around Smart Contract Wallets more accessible than ever. Fuelet wallet showcases the potential of Account Abstraction to reshape the Ethereum landscape. With innovative features like paying gas in any token or conducting batch transactions. These advancements pave the way for defi to rival traditional financial services in user experience and efficiency.

Photo by @SomonePr

The Rollups

Rollups have emerged as a potential solution for addressing scalability issues in the Ethereum ecosystem while also providing protection against censorship and MEV (Miner Extractable Value). Rollup is a layer 2 scaling solution that bundles multiple transactions together off-chain before submitting them as a single transaction to the main blockchain. This helps reduce congestion and fees on the main chain while maintaining the security of the underlying blockchain.

Despite the trade-off of sacrificing profits from blockspace, projects like Tezos with Nomadic Labs experts have taken significant strides in educating people about rollups, emphasizing the importance of widespread understanding on Paris stages. EthCC discussions have shed light on the roadmap to scalability for Ethereum, with merge completed, rollup systems live, and EIP-4844 anticipated within 4–8 months.

This clarity has inspired developers to work on new ideas and build systems to leverage the potential of rollups. Excitement and progress are evident in the scaling arena, with initiatives like Arbitrum, Manta Network, Starknet, and other layer 2-focused projects contributing to Ethereum’s scaling journey. The optimism is high, and the community looks forward to achieving significant advancements in scaling Ethereum in the coming year.

Rollup interoperability is still a challenge. While the OP Stack, ZK Stack, and Arbitrum Orbit offer toolkits for launching app-specific rollups with interoperable components, they only allow cooperation between app rollups of the same type, not across different rollup types.

Take a look at these “stack” architectures, particularly the appchain thesis pioneered by Cosmos. Optimism outlined the “Superchain” and the ZK Credo to be exciting extensions of this idea.

Pic by @MikeIppolito_

StarkWare introduced Starknet Appchains at EthCC, enabling developers to create customizable blockchains for specific applications within the Starknet ecosystem. These Appchains offer improved throughput and user experience, allowing unique features not found on the public chain. StarkWare’s approach emphasizes decentralization, exemplified by the community-driven Madara Sequencer and LambdaClass’s work on a decentralized Starknet Stack.

Additionally, the presence of The Rollup team at EthCC added valuable perspectives to the rollups topic, making the event even more enriching. Our cooperation with them was aimed at educating people more about this topic earlier, ensuring broader awareness and understanding of rollups’ potential impact on the ecosystem.

Photo by @bernd_oostrum

Intent-Based Architecture

This year, the Ethereum community focused on Intent-based architecture, replacing explicit transactions with “intents” prioritizing desired outcomes. Users express goals, while third parties handle transaction creation for improved UX and efficiency. However, concerns about off-chain infrastructure and centralization arise. Designers must choose between permissionless or permissioned mempools for intent propagation, aiming for transparent and ideal systems. Adoption of intents is increasing, prompting close monitoring of the off-chain ecosystem.

Anoma and Namada presented novel Intent-based architecture at EthCC. Anoma offers end-to-end decentralization, flow control, and programmable intents, aiming to integrate them into existing apps and decentralize sequencers. An incentive-based Request for Comments (RFC) program encourages collaboration. Namada, co-founded by Adrian Brink, complements Anoma with multi-chain privacy through “shielded set rewards.”

Photo by @namada

Cooperative-Chain Thesis

The cooperative-chain thesis, as championed by @owocki, introduces “ecosystem chains” as a groundbreaking innovation in the blockchain domain, allowing projects to collaborate and share revenue based on their aligned values. While running individual chains comes with substantial benefits like speed and customized economic models, it can be costly and challenging to maintain.

The cooperative chain model enables projects to unite and distribute sequencer fees, creating a win-win scenario. For instance, cowchain, a chain supporting 🐄 cows, would share revenue not only with cow-related projects but also with other projects like 🐹hamster racing. This approach fosters an economically sustainable system, benefiting both private and public goods projects through an opt-in on-chain tax system. As Public Goods Networkleads the charge, this concept holds the potential to change blockchain ecosystems, fostering collaboration and shared success among projects.

Screenshot by @hamsters_gg

Cosmos and Ethereum Convergence

The Cosmos roadmap has emerged as a successful framework, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Celestia team. The trilemma has shifted to a dilemma between sovereignty and composability. Cosmos promotes a modular vision of sovereignty, allowing each entity to have its own customizable chain like opt-in nations, while Solana adopts a monolithic approach, aiming to solve interoperability challenges within a single chain.

Ethereum has embraced the Cosmos vision, facilitating a modular world of app-chains, making Solana more valuable as an alternative option. The convergence of Cosmos and Ethereum ecosystems is evident, with major Cosmos-based rollups-as-a-service integrating the EVM, bolstering the future of modular blockchains and positioning $ETH as the reserve currency for internet-based apps. The Cosmos core technologies, including Cosmos SDK, Tendermint, and IBC, play a pivotal role in shaping the blockchain landscape.

Photo by @seb3point0

DeCommas Conclusion

In conclusion, the industry is undergoing a significant shift towards a multitude of complex protocols, embracing advancements like Account Abstraction and Intent-based transactions. It is essential for DeCommas to stay agile and adapt to these innovations to remain relevant and effective in this rapidly evolving landscape. By keeping up with these developments, DeCommas can position itself at the forefront of progress, enabling project to seize the opportunities and navigate the challenges of the ever-changing blockchain ecosystem. Thanks to EthCC, we can shed light on these ideas and their movement, looking forward to seeing you all in Brussels next year!

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