Although Ethereum is often praised for its open-ended decentralized blockchain, scalability has never been one of its strong suits. On the Ethereum blockchain, high demands lead to slower transactions and outrageous gas prices.
An array of layer-2 scaling solutions like Polygon, Optimism, and Immutable-X sprung up on the Ethereum network to solve this problem. Layer-1 refers to the blockchain architecture, whereas Layer-2 refers to a network built on the underlying layer-1.
The Layer-1 Scalability of Ethereum will Improve
While scalability still remains a problem for Ethereum, Surojit Chatterjee, the Chief Product Officer of Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), has predicted that the scalability of the Ethereum network will drastically improve in 2022.
Ethereum’s transition into proof-of-stake consensus mechanism scheduled for mid-2022 is expected to bring significant improvements to the network – including the much-needed scalability boost.
Ethereum can handle only 15-45 transactions per second, whereas Polygon boasts of up to 65,000 transactions per second on a single side chain.
Although L1 will improve in 2022, Chatterjee still believes L2 which grew by 11,000% in 2021, will also make strides this year.
As scalability drastically improves on Layer-1, Chatterjee explains that more layer-one networks focused on gaming and social media could also emerge on Ethereum. In addition, he also predicted that more privacy-focused applications would emerge in 2022.
On The Flipside
- Chatterjee believes that Ethereum could attract more regulatory attention as more Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering restrictions are enforced.
Why You Should Care
Achieving better scalability – a Layer-1 problem of Ethereum – could set be the last piece of the puzzle to unlock Ethereum’s explosive growth.
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