Ethereum and Solana: New Developments in the Public Chain Track

In the ongoing development of the blockchain industry, Ethereum and Solana, as the two major public chain platforms, are evolving in different directions. Ethereum is undergoing supply-side reforms, while Solana is committed to expanding its application scenarios. These two distinctly different strategies reflect the current competitive landscape of public chains.

Ethereum's New Direction

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin is re-evaluating the development roadmap for L2/Rollup while also more actively maintaining the L1 track. The "speeding up and reducing costs" plan for the Ethereum mainnet has been put on the agenda, and the shift to Risc-V architecture is just the beginning of this series of reforms. Next, how to catch up with or even surpass Solana in terms of efficiency will become a key task for the Ethereum team.

Solana's Expansion Strategy

In contrast, Solana adheres to the philosophy of "scale or die" and is steadfastly pursuing the path of becoming a stronger L1. In addition to the ongoing Firedancer project, the Alpenglow consensus protocol developed by the Anza team garnered widespread attention at the recent Solana conference in New York. Interestingly, Alpenglow shares the grand vision of becoming a "world computer" with Ethereum.

Alpenglow: New Consensus Mechanism

Alpenglow has proposed a new consensus mechanism aimed at achieving more efficient consensus in a large-scale node environment. The protocol suggests reducing the security consensus ratio to 20% while maintaining a scale of approximately 1500 nodes. This approach may enhance node confirmation speed, increase node profits, and encourage further expansion of the network.

However, whether this practice will affect network security remains controversial. Nevertheless, this bold attempt may be in line with Solana's positioning as a competitor to Ethereum.

Technical Details

The Alpenglow protocol consists of three main components: Rotor, Votor, and Repair. Rotor is an improvement to Solana's existing Turbine mechanism, aimed at achieving more orderly block message propagation. Votor is responsible for node confirmation and employs a multi-round voting mechanism. Repair serves as a last resort measure.

Unlike previous methods, Alpenglow does not solely rely on increasing hardware resources to improve bandwidth, but focuses on reducing the block consensus generation process. Tests show that under ideal conditions, the protocol can shorten the block generation time to 100 milliseconds, a significant improvement compared to the current 10 seconds.

Industry Impact

The emergence of Alpenglow could have a profound impact on the entire blockchain industry. It is not only applicable to Solana; theoretically, any PoS chain could adopt this mechanism. This indicates that research in blockchain technology has reached a new stage, requiring more innovative ideas from computer science and even sociology.

With the continuous advancement of technology, the competition among public blockchain platforms will become more intense. Ethereum and Solana, as industry leaders, will have a significant impact on the entire ecosystem with every step of their development. In the future, we may see more innovative solutions that drive blockchain technology towards greater efficiency and security.