[阿德莱德]以太坊的重大更新会帮助还是损害网络？

经过多年的计划，以太坊一年多以来最大的更新 Dencun 终于在周三到来。

这被视为一件好事。

但也许并非普遍如此。

Proto-danksharding 是 Dencun 更新（两个同时更新的组合：“Deneb”和“Cancun”）带来的主要变化，标志着以太坊在“分片”道路上迈出了第一步，“分片”是一种通过以下方式增加链交易能力的方法：为其众所周知的区块链高速公路添加新车道。

该功能专门旨在降低第 2 层“汇总”网络的费用 - Optimism、Arbitrum 和 Coinbase 的 Base 网络等链运行在以太坊之上，让用户能够在不完全离开生态系统的情况下进行廉价交易。

虽然许多开发者都在庆祝 Dencun 加速以太坊提高可负担性的潜力，但其他人担心它有可能让生态系统走上一条从长远来看可能会反噬的道路。

“Dencun 升级是以太坊对更大可扩展性明确需求的回应，”开发区块链基础设施的 Core DAO 的初始贡献者 Rich Rines 在给 CoinDesk 的消息中表示。

通过 Dencun，以太坊“专注于增强第 2 层解决方案”，但“这是否是一个长期解决方案仍然存在疑问。”

原始丹麦分片

以太坊的费用比许多竞争网络更高，因此一直举步维艰。

Dencun 没有采取太多措施来解决这个问题——至少没有直接解决。

加密货币投资公司 Galaxy Digital 研究副总裁 Christine Kim 告诉 CoinDesk：“以太坊不打算降低用户的费用，这是人们需要理解的现实。”

该网络的联合创始人 Vitalik Buterin 并没有降低以太坊的 Gas 费用（这可能需要数年的时间来计划和实施），而是一直是推动网络走向“以 Rollup 为中心”的路线图的主要声音之一，该路线图将扩展的责任放在首位主要进入第三方第二层网络。

Proto-danksharding 是实现这一愿景的第一步——优化网络以更好地适应 Rollup，Rollup 已稳步增长，在总交易量上超过了以太坊。

该功能的工作原理是引入“blob”，这是一种新的数据结构，第 2 层汇总可以使用该结构将数据发布回基础以太坊链。

"We're increasing supply significantly for exactly the type of data that rollups need, and also the type of data that's not really useful for any other applications on L1," explained the Ethereum Foundation's Tim Beiko, who leads Ethereum's biweekly "All Core Devs" calls and helped coordinate the Dencun upgrade. "This creates much more room for them to post their data, and therefore lowers the fees."

Fears of fragmentation

While pushing users towards cheaper layer-2s can help make the Ethereum ecosystem more accessible, some developers warn that embracing third-party networks could backfire – fragmenting the Ethereum ecosystem, and diluting its primary use-case as the premier blockchain "settlement layer."

"The natural outcome of wanting to push users from Ethereum to other L2s means that you are ceding your dominance as a general purpose platform for general purpose compute," said Kim. "You're saying that other protocols should do that responsibility of general purpose computation."

"While L2s are supposed to service the base layer, their proliferation may compete with the base layer for resources such as fees, developers, and liquidity," said Rines. "If the bulk of transactions take place on L2s, the economic incentives upholding the L1 may be diluted as validators’ fees evaporate. Furthermore, reliance on L2s could also fracture activity, weakening the cohesion and interoperability of the Ethereum ecosystem."

In the interview Tuesday, Beiko waved away the fragmentation concerns. Developer fragmentation, according to Beiko, is "more a feature than a bug." "Different people being able to deploy different types of rollups and experiment with that is hugely valuable," he said.

Ethereum rollup security

But there are also concerns with the security of rollups.

Whereas rollups are ultimately designed to "borrow" Ethereum's security apparatus – bundling up transactions from users, and then passing them down to the base chain with the same security guarantees – "L2s have varying designs, so any user who wants to access the full gamut of Ethereum use-cases may need to trust numerous different blockchain rulesets," said Rimes.

Not all layer-2 rulesets are created equal: Despite billions of dollars in transaction volumes, all of today's biggest rollups have "training wheels" – things like centralized sequencers or non-existent proof systems that rely on user trust to operate.

The training wheels help keep down fees and protect users from certain kinds of bugs, but they place the rollups out of step with key Ethereum values like decentralization and permissionlessness. "Rollups today are definitely not as secure as Ethereum L1 for a bunch of reasons," said Beiko. "It does fall on us as a community to educate people around that."

随着用户越来越习惯在充满妥协的第二层网络上进行交易，人们担心以太坊的去中心化纯粹主义宣传可能会失去影响力。

但根据 Beiko 的说法，向更便宜的网络的转变可能是不可避免的，而以太坊只是在适应现实。

“我不认为以太坊的角色决定了整个市场结构应该如何演变，”他说。

“我很高兴为用户提供了更多选择。”