Ethereum Price Consistently Above $1,700 Despite a 1.2% Drop as Scalability Suggestions Gain Ground
In the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrencies, Ethereum (ETH) continues to hold its ground, despite a minor dip of 1.2% over the last 24 hours. This resilience is especially impressive considering Ethereum has been underperforming Bitcoin lately. Let's delve deeper into the exciting developments brewing within Ethereum's ecosystem.
A Quantum Leap for Ethereum's Scalability with EIP-9698
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are buzzing about Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-9698), a game-changing proposal by Ethereum researcher, Dankrad Feist. EIP-9698 aims to elevate Ethereum's scalability by an astounding 100 times over a four-year period. How, you ask? By increasing the gas limit from its current 36 million units to a whopping 3.6 billion units!
This ambitious plan seeks to introduce a deterministic exponential growth pattern for the gas limit, ensuring predictable increases in alignment with hardware and protocol efficiency advancements. While still in the discussion phase, if approved, the changes could take effect as early as June 1, 2025, without necessitating a hard fork, maintaining backward compatibility for unupdated clients.
Boosting Ethereum's Transaction Capacity by 6000x
If EIP-9698 gets the green light upon review and testing, Ethereum's transaction throughput could soar to an impressive 2,000 transactions per second (TPS). This substantial improvement would theoretically allow for up to 6,000 simple transfers per block, revolutionizing Ethereum's capacity to handle transactions.
However, alongside these exciting prospects, EIP-9698 brings up considerations regarding node optimization and potential centralization risks. These concerns will be meticulously examined during the review process to ensure a balanced and secure ecosystem.
Technical Analysis: A Bullish Outlook for ETH
Ethereum's Technical Analysis points towards a potential recovery. Ethereum is currently forming a falling wedge pattern, suggesting a bullish reversal with a target of $2,875. The Parabolic SAR indicator reinforces this bullish trend, hinting at buyers regaining control after months of selling pressure.
Key support levels to keep an eye on include the immediate level of $1,700, a critical support level at $1,449, and the psychological barrier at $2,000.
Layer-Zero Update: A Response to Scalability Criticism
In response to criticism from Charles Hoskinson, Founder of Cardano, who predicted Ethereum's potential demise within 15 years, Vitalik Buterin shared a major Layer-Zero scalability update. This update proposes a shift from the current EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) to the more efficient zkVM system using RISC-V standards.
Research suggests that this update would expand Ethereum's network capabilities with up to 832x fewer cycles than existing EVM interpreters, offering significant benefits such as reduced proving cycles via precompiles, increased throughput with GPU acceleration, and proof compression via recursion.
This Layer-Zero technology aims to provide a Web2-level performance with Web3 verifiability, potentially alleviating long-term fragmentation fears within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Balancing Revenue Generation with Equitable Fee Extraction
Parallel to these scalability solutions, Ethereum community members Kevin Owocki and Devansh Mehta have proposed a dynamic application layer cost structure using a square root formula. This approach aims to proportionally lower the percentage of fees as funding capital increases, promoting fairer fee extraction while enabling smaller developers to create distributed apps without excessive costs.
These proposals reflect growing calls to alter value accrual systems, as Ethereum faces competition from rising alternatives like Solana, which surpassed Ethereum in attracting new developers in 2024.
In conclusion, Ethereum remains buoyant, despite encountering some short-term underperformance. The combination of promising scalability solutions, a bullish technical outlook, and dynamic fee structure reforms creates an optimistic picture for the future of Ethereum's growth and competitiveness. Keep your eyes peeled for further developments within this ever-evolving digital landscape!
- Despite a minor dip and underperforming Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) has shown resilience, shedding light on its ongoing developments within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
- Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are intrigued by Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP-9698), which aims to enhance Ethereum's scalability by a staggering 100 times over four years via a deterministic exponential growth pattern for gas limit, potentially introducing up to 6,000 simple transfers per block.
- If EIP-9698 is approved, Ethereum's transaction throughput could surge to an impressive 2,000 transactions per second (TPS), all without necessitating a hard fork, maintaining backward compatibility for unupdated clients.
- The Layer-Zero scalability update, proposed by Vitalik Buterin, suggests shifting from the current EVM to the zkVM system using RISC-V standards, aiming to provide a Web2-level performance with Web3 verifiability, potentially alleviating long-term fragmentation fears within the Ethereum ecosystem.
- A dynamic application layer cost structure using a square root formula is proposed by Kevin Owocki and Devansh Mehta, aiming to fairly distribute fees among developers and promote equitable fee extraction in the face of rising competition from cryptocurrencies like Solana.


