Vitalik announces a new phase in the Ethereum roadmap: The Scourge
The remaining stages on the Ethereum roadmap are the Surge, Scourge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has introduced a new stage to the Ethereum technical roadmap, one that intends to increase the Ethereum network's censorship resistance and decentralization.
Buterin unveiled the Ethereum network's new aspirations in a Nov. 5 Twitter post, which included the Scourge in a now expanded six-part technical roadmap.
Following the switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network on September 15, Ethereum has been in the Surge stage, with the objective of reaching 100,000 transactions per second through rollups.
The Scourge is now the third stage on the updated technical roadmap, and it will be followed by the previously known phases — the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge.
The Scourge's purpose, according to the Ethereum roadmap, is to "guarantee reliable and credibly neutral transaction inclusion while avoiding centralization and other protocol issues from MEV."
The Ethereum co-founder's proposal for a more "credibly neutral" consensus layer comes as miners have been known to manipulate transactions on the Ethereum network to their advantage.
Buterin earlier defined a credible neutral mechanism as one that "does not discriminate in favor of or against any specific people."
Miner Extractable Value (MEV) happens when a miner outperforms other network players by selecting which transactions should be included in a block and in what order.
This enables miners to copy all winning deals from the mempool and execute their transactions before arbitrage seekers or anybody else attempting to profit.
As a result of the Merge, Ethereum has come to be associated with greater centralization and censorship.
Following the network's PoS change, the percentage of blocks compatible with the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) hit 73% on November 3 – a level many believe far too high.
Anthony Sassano, founder of The Daily Gwei and an Ethereum bull, previously stated in a Twitter post on Oct. 15 that censorship resistance is "more important than scaling" at the present.
While the Scourge's complete details have not been revealed, the Ethereum co-founder previously proposed a "Partial Block Auction" solution in which a block builder is only allowed to decide on some of the block's contents.
Other solutions have been made to tackle censorship at the consensus layer, such as Ethereum research and development company Flashbots' Single Unifying Auctions for Value Expression (SUAVE) approach.
Buterin also announced a Verge update, which will include the integration of Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (SNARK) technology onto Ethereum.
The incorporation of SNARKs into the Ethereum network will provide much-needed privacy-preserving features while yet allowing anonymous transactions to be traceable.
Buterin also stated that a "more explicit role for quantum-proofness" would be included as a crucial component of the "endgame" protocol at various phases of the Ethereum roadmap.
