Hey Edge readers, welcome back!

Last week, we kicked things off with The Merge—Ethereum’s big shift to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Now, it’s time for a new chapter about the evolution of Ethereum: The Surge is Vitalik’s proposal to make Ethereum faster, cheaper, and ready to handle 100,000+ transactions per second (TPS).

Here’s what we got for you this week:

• Ethereum’s road to 100K TPS 📈

  Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, lays out the blockchain’s scaling strategy. We’ll break down the big goals and how Ethereum plans to leverage ‘blobs’ and Layer 2 chains to get there.

• New pool: Aave GHO Lending ✨

  Boost your USD yield directly on Exponential.fi. Plus, take advantage of No-Fee November to rebalance your portfolio at zero-cost!

• Bitcoin hits a new all-time high post-election 🗞️

  Plus, Ethereum’s fee revenue is bouncing back as Layer 2s heat up, Curve’s got a new proposal for yield on its stablecoin, and more.

Stay sharp. 🫡

-The Exponential team

The future of Ethereum: Part 2

Last week, we kicked off Vitalik Buterin’s six-part vision for Ethereum (Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol) with The Merge. Now, in Part 2: The Surge, Ethereum’s co-founder breaks down the next step in scaling the network to handle mainstream adoption.

Part 1: The Merge ⛘
Part 2: The Surge 📈
Part 3: The Scourge ⚔️
Part 4: The Verge 🧩
Part 5: The Purge 🧹
Part 6: The Splurge 💎

Part 2: The Surge 📈

Ethereum’s next big leap is The Surge, and it’s all about scale. Vitalik’s got a simple goal in mind: getting Ethereum to handle 100,000+ transactions per second (TPS). That means making the network faster and more affordable—all while keeping it decentralized.

So, how’s Ethereum going to pull this off? Two words: Layer 2. Think of Layer 2 (L2) networks as Ethereum’s “fast lanes.” They handle most of the traffic off the main chain (Layer 1 or L1) while relying on Ethereum’s security. Vitalik compares it to the court system—L1 is like the law, setting the rules and ensuring security, while L2s are like entrepreneurs building on top of that base layer to take humanity to new heights. This setup lets Ethereum handle way more transactions without compromising its core decentralization and security.

A big part of The Surge was EIP-4844, or “blobs,” introduced in Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade earlier this year. These blobs are new data storage spaces that keep L2 transactions from crowding L1. Think of it like adding more lanes to a highway—more room for traffic without congestion.

Another major focus is on improving “data availability,” or ensuring data within each transaction is verified without overloading the L1. This involves data availability sampling, a technique that improves scalability by allowing nodes to verify only a small portion of each block’s data to confirm its availability instead of downloading the entire dataset, drastically reducing the workload.

Beyond individual L2 scaling, The Surge is also about making Ethereum’s ecosystem feel like one unified network. With better cross-L2 connectivity, hopping between L2s should feel like moving within the same network, giving users a smoother, more consistent experience across Ethereum.

Ultimately, The Surge is all about transforming Ethereum into a high-performance, low-cost platform that can handle mainstream adoption without sacrificing decentralization.

Next week, we’ll dive into Part 3: The Scourge, and explore how Ethereum will protect against censorship risks.

Podcast 🎧

In the news 🗞️

• Bitcoin smashes $76K! Bitcoin hit a record-breaking $76K, triggering a violent rally that liquidated nearly $400M in short positions. It’s the first time BTC has reached these heights, marking a new era for crypto’s largest asset.

• Ethereum revenues on the rise. Thanks to Layer 2 growth and the new ‘blob’ data storage upgrade, Ethereum is seeing a nice revenue rebound, showing promising momentum for the network’s future.

• Coinbase bridges Bitcoin to Solana. Coinbase has made Bitcoin accessible on Solana through cbBTC, with the hope of sparking a DeFi surge on the network. This move could open new doors for BTC-based DeFi activity on Solana.

• Wintermute calls for revenue sharing on Ethena. Leading market maker Wintermute is pushing for Ethena to distribute part of its revenue to stakers, aiming to bring more benefits to ENA holders on the platform.

• Curve proposes revenue boost for crvUSD holders. Curve is looking to spice things up for crvUSD holders with a proposal to allocate 10% of crvUSD revenue to savings holders, giving stablecoin holders a slice of the protocol’s earnings.

Airdrop radar 🪂

• Grass airdrop defies expectations. Grass, a decentralized network for sharing internet bandwidth, shocked the market by soaring from a $700M to a $3B valuation after its recent airdrop. Unlike recent airdropped tokens that fizzled out, GRASS’s four-fold rise has traders rethinking airdrop potential.

• Swell’s big airdrop. Swell, a liquid staking protocol, recently announced its SWELL token airdrop, distributing 700 million SWELL to platform users.

Trending 📈