Ethereum:Next Steps

Dr. Gavin Woodco-founder, ethereum

co- founder, ethcore.io

@gavofyork

Where are we?

● Olympic released● Frontier released● Homestead released

Coming up next for Ethereum...

MetropolisProtocol improvements and browser

SerenityMove to proof-of-stake

BeyondHyper-scalability, confidentiality and more...

... and for Ethcore

Civility99.99999% reliability through hypervisor + actor-based arch.

TenuityLight client

PurityParity fork for Serenity

PoA enterprise-grade Consortium chains

Metropolis Hard Fork

VM I/O SimplificationRemoval of BLOCKHASH, provision of information in low-id contracts

Dynamic-sized Storage SlotsMoving from fixed 32-byte slots to arbitrary length

Null-signature TransactionsProvision for alternative means of identification & payment

Metropolis Hard Fork

Explicit Contract AddressesContracts identity on CREATE no longer nonce-based

Receipts Less InformativeRemoval of medstate and gas used from logs

VM I/O Simplification

BLOCKHASH @ 0x10Opcode removed (yey)

STATEROOT @ 0x20Useful for Serenity/PoS

GAS_USED @ 0x30Alternative for logged information

Dynamic-Size Storage Slots

Store any length of data in any slot!Storage now a key/value DB with keys restricted to 32-bytes.

Makes a lot of stuff cheaper (less gas!)

Null-Signature Transactions & Mining Logic

Authenticate-by-ContractContracts may authenticate through use of transaction data & alternative

crypto

Payment-by-ContractNo longer critical requirement that users own ether to use Ethereum

Mining LogicMiners now check for alternative payment methods

Explicit Contract Addresses

Used to be creator + nonce

Now creator + codeUser can be certain that address has (or will have) the supposed code in it;

cleaner when we use unsigned transactions to create contracts.

Receipts Less Informative

Receipts no longer have medstate

No longer have to execute in sequence!

Transaction parallelismThough we still have to avoid state collisions between execution

The Road to Crypto (R)evolution

We built the kernelNow we need the rest!

Three pillars which support the ecosystem

The Road to Crypto (R)evolution

IdentityIndividuals, unique stuff. There is only one of each “thing”. The “one”.

AssetsOwnership of stuff. Each “thing” may be plural. The “many”.

DataGeneral information, not formally structured. The “infinite”.

Identity

PeopleYou and me.

Unique ThingsMy priceless Monet painting. Your shipping container.

DevicesMy door knob. Samsung’s washing machine.

Assets/Ownership

Real fungiblesI own 500g of gold in the warehouse. You want 1 tonne of granulated sugar.

Virtual fungiblesI have $500. You have 50% share in my DAO.

Data/Information

May be attributed or globalAttributed to identity or fungible. Global is unassociated.

May be freeform or formattedDepending on usage.

Adding external relevance to internal stuffCrypto-law rather isolated otherwise!

But the real magic...

...comes from combining these things.

Data + Assets

Insurance/GamingData is arbitrary real world information/random series. Assets dispersed on

the outcome.

Pegged CurrencyData is asset performance. Contracts bet on asset against hedgers. Contracts

are split into tokens to form currency.

Asset ClassificationAttributing information to assets to form asset language.

Data + Identity

OraclesIdentity claims global information.

ReputationIdentities claim scalar information on each other.

BadgesAsymmetric ascription of non-scalar (e.g. attendance, donation, purchase)

information to an identity.

Assets + Identity

CertificationBadges-for-stuff.

Asset TrackingAttach previous-ownership information to assets.

Judged Escrow & Bonded IdentityThird-party escrow to assign ownership; bonded identity allows punitive

damages to be taken by the adjudicator.

And more...

Credit Rating/KYCDerived from Reputation system

(Mostly-)Trust-free OraclesReputation + Oracles: to provide high quality fault-tolerant information

Virtual RetailPegged Currency + Assets: online shops and exchanges for chain-expressed

assets & services.

And more...

Real MarketplaceReputation + Escrow + Virtual Retail: Decentralised eBay!

Simple Truth EngineData + Reputation: Given a statement, is it true or false?

CourtTruth Engine + Bonded Identity: Court of the internet able to assign damages.

And more...

Trade MediatorTruth-engine + Escrow: Simpler court for trading.

Trade FinanceCredit Rating + Currency + Asset-tracking: Combine the lot to rewrite trade!

Transparent Supply-ChainCertification + Asset-tracking: Know everything about what you’re buying

Ethereum:Next steps

Dr. Gavin Wood@gavofyork

Questions?