Ethereum, once hailed as the World Computer, now faces a critical crossroads. A recent article from CoinDesk shares that the network's original vision is at risk. Ethereum has become sidetracked by chasing trends like faster execution speeds and the "ultra-sound money" narrative, while losing focus on what made it revolutionary. The question of whether Ethereum has lost its way as the ecosystem contends with slow progress and increasing competition from blockchains like Solana and Bitcoin.
Even Ethereum Team Lead Péter Szilágyi has said, "Ethereum is losing the plot." As inflation rises and the token price remains below its 2021 high, it's evident that Ethereum must re-focus. But what's the path forward?
The article points out that Ethereum's true strength has always been its infrastructure, enabling anyone to build decentralized apps. But short-term dApp hype, limited user growth, and siloed activity in L2s are detracting from its long-term vision. With major upcoming upgrades like Pectra and The Purge coming in late 2024, Ethereum will become leaner by purging old historical data. However, this introduces the risk of centralizing that data, undermining the network's decentralization goals.
Covalent's Ethereum Wayback Machine (EWM) is designed to safeguard Ethereum's historical data, ensuring it remains decentralized and accessible -- even as the network purges older data. To bolster this effort, Covalent has just launched its EWM Light Client Testnet, providing a crucial tool for maintaining decentralization.
Now live, the Light Client Testnet enables participants to help strengthen Ethereum's long-term data availability by playing a key role in protecting Ethereum's decentralization and ensuring the network remains true to its original mission of being the World Computer.
Read the full article on CoinDesk.
Covalent is the leading modular data infrastructure layer dedicated to solving major challenges in blockchain and AI, including verifiability, decentralized AI inference, and Long-Term Data Availability. Its large reservoir of structured, verifiable data enhances decentralized training and inference, reducing the risk of manipulated or biased AI models. Additionally, the Ethereum Wayback Machine ensures secure, decentralized access to Ethereum's transaction data. Trusted by over 3,000 leading organizations, Covalent powers AI, DeFi, GameFi, and more with unfettered access to on-chain data from over 200 blockchains.