Ethereum recently completed its largest upgrade in over a year, but the journey has been rocky.
Ether’s value has dropped, some developers have migrated to competitors, and the Ethereum Foundation has faced criticism for unclear leadership. Despite these challenges, experts see promise in the network’s future.
Leadership and Messaging: Key Areas of Focus
At CoinDesk’s Consensus conference in Toronto, Josh Stark of the Ethereum Foundation and Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at EY, highlighted areas that need improvement. Stark emphasized the need for stronger leadership in executing the roadmap and coordinating the ecosystem. “The ecosystem needs stronger leadership to tackle the big challenges,” Stark said. He also stressed that the network needs better communication about its strengths to counter negative perceptions.
Ethereum’s Potential: Focus on Innovation and Growth
Despite the challenges, Brody remains optimistic about ETH’s long-term prospects. “Ethereum is the most innovative project in crypto,” he said, pointing to the network’s scalability and capacity for growth. He praised former Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi for her leadership, which helped Ethereum scale to a network that handles hundreds of millions of transactions daily. Under her tenure, transaction fees dropped significantly, with the cost now averaging less than one penny per transaction.
Ethereum’s Rollup-Centric Roadmap and Scalability Solutions
Ethereum’s roadmap includes a strong focus on layer-2 rollups, a solution to scalability issues. These rollups process transactions off-chain before finalizing them on the main Ethereum network, allowing for faster and cheaper transactions. While rollups like Optimism and Arbitrum have helped reduce fees, critics worry about security risks and fragmentation. Still, Brody believes that Ethereum is addressing these issues and moving forward. “We fix problems and move on to the next,” he explained, noting that scaling was the most pressing challenge in recent years.
Market Outlook for Ethereum
Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has struggled in recent months compared to Bitcoin, which has positioned itself as a reliable store of value. Stark acknowledged that Ethereum has a more complex narrative, but he believes the market will eventually appreciate its deeper value. “Ethereum is not just about value storage,” he said. “It’s a more intricate system with a real value proposition that people will understand over time.”
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Source: https://coindoo.com/ethereum-overcomes-setbacks-experts-discuss-future-vision/