Image source: HashKey Capital
Looking back at history, it is not difficult to find that many of the cutting-edge technology discussions in the Ethereum developer community have ultimately evolved into the current daily application products, from DEX, lending, to Rollup, DA, none are exceptions. This also contains investment layout opportunities.
So, at this point in early 2025, what valuable information can we capture from discussions about Ethereum's roadmap, recent DevCon, and the upcoming Pectra upgrade early next year? This article attempts to summarize and explore.
Ethereum's roadmap
The Ethereum roadmap has always been an important reference for observing future development directions, including various stages such as The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge. Vitalik also published a series of articles in October to introduce the contents of each stage, among which:
The Merge: The primary completion is the execution layer and consensus layer, thus completing the transition from PoW to PoS. However, The Merge also includes some improvements in the consensus protocol, such as single-slot finality and lowering the validator threshold.
The Surge: The main discussion focuses on future scalability, improving from the underlying layer to better serve Rollup. Among them, EIP-4844 has gone live, and future key contents include PeerDAS to reduce node pressure and cross-rollup interactions.
The Scourge: Mainly reduces some issues related to MEV, including excessive centralization of builders and MEV value being captured by large LSTs.
The Verge: Includes changing the underlying structure from Merkle tree to Verkle tree and Snarkification of the EVM.
The Purge: Reduces the pressure on Ethereum node data storage and state maintenance by deleting or archiving historical data. It will also clean up some technical debt.
The Splurge: Some more cutting-edge improvements, including EVM underlying, account abstraction, and other cryptographic applications (VDF, etc.).
In the following table, we summarize the key improvements of these stages, introduce their main effects, and outline the current progress.
Image source: HashKey Capital
Image source: HashKey Capital
DevCon
Besides the roadmap, another valuable information channel is the recent Ethereum DevCon conference, which discussed current issues and potential solutions.
One of the most notable topics at DevCon may belong to Beam Chain. The slightly sarcastic but not entirely accurate term "Ethereum 3.0" reflects the community's desire for new development directions in the future. Beam Chain has proposed many underlying improvements, including Snarkification of the base layer and enhancements in block generation and staking. However, the roadmap will take about 5 years to complete, so it does not require too much additional attention for now.
Image source: HashKey Capital
Rollup-related topics remain a hot topic during DevCon. The most discussed issue is the fragmentation of liquidity between Rollups and the difficulty of interaction, which affects user experience. Many speeches and panels addressed this issue or related solutions. Additionally, the current technical maturity of Layer 2 was also discussed at the conference, as currently only Optimism and Arbitrum have entered Stage 1 (permissioned fraud proof), while most other Layer 2 projects remain in Stage 0 (centralized upgrades, no fraud proof, etc.), needing to sync with Layer 1 upgrades.
Additionally, discussions on chain abstraction, pre-confirmation, cryptographic applications, future upgrades, and other topics were more concentrated during DevCon. In the next section, we will focus on introducing the Pectra upgrade content.
Pectra upgrade
Recently, attention should be paid to the Ethereum Pectra upgrade expected to be completed in Q1 2025, which will also include multiple relevant transformations from the underlying layer to the user end.
EIP-7702: AA
The most relevant to users is EIP-7702, which further develops EIP-4337 based on the design of EIP-3074, granting all EOA accounts the ability to "temporarily" convert to smart contract accounts, potentially improving user experience (one signature for multiple transactions, 0 gas, etc.), but may also increase security risks such as signature phishing. Moreover, EIP-7702 also applies to all EOAs, so wallets and other products should also be modified accordingly to respond to this upgrade. Overall, the activation of EIP-7702 will still bring new opportunities for all AA projects. More information can be found in our previous report.
EIP-7691: Increase the number of blobs
Pectra plans to adjust the target number of blobs in each block from 3 to 6, raising the maximum number of blobs from 6 to 9. Blobs provide cheaper storage space for Rollups, and increasing the number of blobs will lower the cost of Rollups at the expense of increased node operation costs, enhancing Ethereum's DA competitiveness. Therefore, it will further benefit Rollup-type projects. Additionally, the adjustments to the target and maximum values will make gas decrease more rapidly when blobs are unused, and gas will increase more slowly when blobs reach their maximum limit.
EIP-7251: Increase staking cap
Pectra plans to raise the current staking cap from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH. Ethereum staking service providers and whales no longer need to spread their ETH across multiple nodes but can merge them and place them in a single node, reducing the number of validators in staking.
Future opportunities
All the aforementioned technological changes or research discussions may bring about new changes and opportunities. We summarize some of the more significant opportunities below.
Interoperability between rollups
Whether from the roadmap or many shares during DevCon, the liquidity interoperability and interactivity between Layer 2 (Rollups) are the primary concerns of developers.
Currently, there are different solutions in the community addressing the liquidity and interoperability issues between Rollups from various levels.
Based Rollup: Currently, many Layer 2s use their relatively centralized sequencers to achieve transaction ordering, which are then published to Layer 1, resulting in an inability to quickly and timely realize interaction. One solution is to achieve ordering functionality through Layer 1 to ensure atomicity of interactions between Layer 2s that use this ordering functionality.
Shared sequencer: In addition to Based-Rollup, another implementation method is for Layer 2s to share a group of sequencers to complete interactions.
Cross-chain intents: Beyond solving problems from the sequencer level, utilizing intents to meet the needs of cross-Rollup is another solution.
Currently, all the aforementioned solutions are being implemented and advanced, such as Spire Labs' Based Stack for implementing based Rollup, which is expected to go live in Q1 2025; Shared sequencer-related Astria, Espresso, and Polygon AggLayer are gradually going live and iterating; ERC-7683 is being used by Unichain, Arbitrum, etc., to address cross-chain liquidity issues; and Optimism's ERC-7802 can implement SuperchainERC20 to support a unified standard for assets within the Superchain ecosystem and liquidity transfer. These different solutions may compete in the market for a winner in 2025.
Account abstraction
Since it involves all EOA account addresses, the activation of EIP-7702 will provide new opportunities for AA projects. Moreover, EIP-7702, combined with chain abstraction, intents, and other functionalities, may build more complex cross-chain or multi-chain interaction capabilities. However, due to the previous lukewarm market performance of ERC-4337, the Pectra upgrade might be the last opportunity to validate PMF for the AA track.
Thus, after the Pectra upgrade in the first quarter of next year, teams that participated early in EIP-7702 and are well-prepared, such as Zerodev, may experience a new wave of growth, and the specific effects will be seen soon.
Cryptographic applications
Whether in the Ethereum roadmap or in discussions during DevCon, cryptography-related technologies and applications remain a significant topic. On the technical side, zkEVM and zkVM architectures are gradually maturing, while ZKP combined with MPC, FHE, etc., may have more possible applications. Additionally, some cutting-edge cryptographic technology discussions during DevCon, such as the indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), which is hailed as the crown jewel of cryptography, may also receive more attention.
In terms of applications, there will also be numerous opportunities for cryptography technologies on the consumer side. Verification applications, including ZK Email (especially those based on Aztec Noir) and zkTLS, may see more adoption. Additionally, recent events where OFAC's sanctions against Tornado Cash were deemed overreach may alleviate some concerns regarding regulatory compliance for privacy applications.
Special thanks to Zhixiong Pan and Yan for reviewing and suggesting this article!
This article is reprinted with permission from: (Deep Tide TechFlow)
Original authors: Zeqing Guo, Jeffrey Hu
'2025 Ethereum Roadmap: DevCon, Pectra Upgrade, What Key Points Must Be Known?' This article was first published in 'Crypto City'