Beam Chain crisis announcement with ETHereum

Author: Four Pillars Source: X, @FourPillarsFP Translation: Shanooba, Golden Finance

Key Points

At the 2024 Devcon conference, Ethereum proposed the Beam Chain proposal, aiming to enhance network performance and security through the following improvements:

• Reduce the block generation time from 12 seconds to 4 seconds;
• Lowered the minimum stake requirement from 32 ETH to 1 ETH;
• Application of extended zero-knowledge technology (ZK);
• Significantly increase gas limit (10 to 100 times).

Although the proposal has been praised as an important step to improve scalability and Decentralization, it has sparked widespread criticism due to insufficient community participation and a target timeline that is too slow (target completion time is 2029).

The Beam Chain proposal has demonstrated significant progress in efficiency and Decentralization, but the ETH community and industry experts have expressed disappointment after the announcement. The main issues are centered around the following areas:

• The schedule is too long, it cannot respond quickly to the rapid changes in the Blockchain industry;
• Lack of agility and innovation may weaken the competitiveness of Ethereum.

Delphi Ventures’ José Maria Macedo and Helius from Solana’s development platform Mert expressed concerns about the lack of competitiveness and slow progress of the Beam Chain. Péter from the Ethereum Foundation and Cygaar from Abstract, on the other hand, emphasized the need for a careful and phased plan considering the technical stability and governance risks.

As a leading blockchain ecosystem, Ethereum needs to re-examine its strategy to maintain community trust and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving industry. The Beam Chain proposal showcases the potential of Ethereum while also reminding it to seek a balance between Decentralization and rapid innovation.

1. Background - Ethereum Beam Chain

Devcon 2024, held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 12th to 15th, has become a highly anticipated event. Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, introduced the Beam Chain proposal at the conference.

In his speech, Drake depicted the future plan of Ethereum, proposing to replace or improve the existing Beacon Chain with Beam Chain to enhance network performance and security. These improvements include:

• Expand the application of Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine (ZK-VM);
• Shorten the time of the slot;
• Increase gas limit and other upgrade measures.

According to the introduction at the event and on The Rollup YouTube channel, the main features of Beam Chain are as follows:

Main Features

1. Faster Block Generation Time: Reduce the block generation time of Etherum from about 12 seconds to 4 seconds, improving transaction throughput and network efficiency.
2. Lower validators stake threshold: Lower the minimum stake requirement from 32 ETH to 1 ETH to encourage more users to participate in network validation.
3. Proactively apply ZK technology: On the basis of transitioning from PoW to PoS, Beam Chain integrates ZK technology, utilizes ZK proofs for each Block, and provides higher security and scalability, constructing a trustworthy environment for users and developers.
4. Higher gas limit: Beam Chain proposes to increase the current limit of 30 million gas per block on Ethereum by 10 to 100 times to accommodate more transactions and significantly enhance the scalability of the network. Drake emphasizes that this is a crucial step for Ethereum to compete with other Layer 1 blockchains.
5. Stronger L2 Interoperability: Beam Chain aims to improve the interoperability between Layer 1 and Layer 2. By introducing single-slot finality, it resolves the transaction processing latency issue caused by L2 relying on L1 Block confirmation, thus accelerating and enhancing the operational efficiency and security of L2.
6. Resistance to Quantum Computing Attacks: The proposal includes security measures against future threats from Quantum Computing.
7. Valuation Model for $ETH: Drake proposed a long-term valuation framework for Ethereum (ETH) based on two core factors:

• ETH network fees loop (from network fees income);
• Currency premium (as a reliable store of value role).

He believes these factors are the foundation of Ethereum’s continued value.

Drake explained that the goal of Beam Chain is to address the issues found in the current Beacon Chain design of Ethereum, and emphasized that community Consensus is key to proposal implementation.

According to the schedule, the initial standardization work may start as early as next year, followed by:

• 2026: Start development;
• 2027: Comprehensive testing phase;
• At least two years of stability verification.

According to the plan, the official launch of BEAM Chain is expected to be completed in 2029.

2、Main Harvest - Ethereum and Beam Chain: Radiance and Shadow

Since its launch in 2015, Ethereum has continuously upgraded its system through Hard Forks. An important milestone is “The Merge”, which signifies the transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) Consensus Mechanism, marking the phase known as Ethereum 2.0. Subsequent upgrades like Shapella and Dencun aim to improve network efficiency and user experience, but these updates have not brought revolutionary changes, leaving the community eagerly anticipating more transformative improvements.

The timing of the release of Beam Chain is just right, at a time when the community is tired of excessive follow-up on L2 solutions and external developments, it refocuses attention on Ethereum itself and brings important internal milestones, which has sparked widespread interest.

In addition, as part of the development roadmap for ETH 2.0, Beam Chain was released under the name of ‘ETH 3.0’, further enhancing the significance of the announcement. However, Justin Drake clearly stated that Beam Chain is limited to improvements at the consensus layer and is not related to the execution layer, so calling it ETH 3.0 is not entirely accurate.

Highlights of Beam Chain

The Beam Chain proposal has many commendable aspects, especially in improving the consensus layer, enhancing network efficiency, and Decentralization. Here are some key elements:

1. Faster Block Generation Time

• Many competitive Layer 1 Blockchains have already achieved shorter Block generation times, and Ethereum has reduced the Block generation time from 12 seconds to 4 seconds, marking a catch-up with this trend.
• Although still slower than Solana, this indicates that Ethereum is breaking away from the past attitude of sacrificing speed for stability, reflecting an important shift.

• Increase Block gas limit

• Increase the gas limit of each Block by 10 to 100 times, which is particularly attractive to users, developers, and L2 projects.
• A higher gas limit allows each Block to accommodate more data, significantly enhancing the usability and versatility of Ethereum.

• dropvalidatorsstake threshold

• To become validators, currently it requires a minimum stake of 32 ETH, which is equivalent to about $100,000 (as of November 19, 2024). This high threshold has deterred many individual participants.
• This has also led to the rise of Liquiditystake platforms like Lido and Rocket Pool, which instead centralize stake activities within their ecosystems.
• Beam Chain will lower the minimum stake requirement to 1 ETH, potentially allowing more individuals to directly participate in validation, further driving Decentralization of the Ethereum network.

However, the Beam Chain proposal did not receive unanimous approval. While Ethereum’s price stagnation may be one reason, the community’s lukewarm response also reveals deeper concerns.

The proposed changes address the urgent issues that Ethereum needs to resolve, so individual proposals themselves are not flawed. The problem lies in the lack of a coherent narrative about the direction of Ethereum - an advantage that has guided the development of Ethereum. This absence has left many feeling disappointed.

In addition, the timeline of this roadmap is slow, with a target launch date of 2029, which does not align with the fast pace of the blockchain industry. This has raised doubts about whether the Ethereum Foundation fully understands the urgency of maintaining correlation in such a dynamic environment. While the Beam Chain proposal contains innovative elements, its lengthy timeline has made some question whether Ethereum has the ability to adapt quickly and remain competitive.

In a Telegram channel that I often follow, a comment resonated with me:

“If Ethereum’s goal is to advocate Decentralization, why wasn’t this point clearly and transparently demonstrated from the beginning? The Ethereum community and EIP framework have long been established, so why is there such a lack of transparency in preparing and releasing this proposal?” — (ABCDEF) AI & Blockchain Daily Expertise Forum

I fully agree with this view. Since its inception, Ethereum has always placed decentralization at the core, even at the expense of scalability. However, the feedback collection and release process of Beam Chain proposal appears to be contradictory to this principle.

One of the biggest advantages of Ethereum is its large and active community, as well as the rich creativity generated within its EIP ecosystem. Bypassing these channels and allowing the Ethereum Foundation to unilaterally decide and announce its next blueprint could undermine the momentum of the community and drop the value of the EIP system.

In addition, proposals developed internally without public discussion may not incorporate the views of actual users and developers of the ETH Fang network. The result could be a situation similar to that of an authoritarian company that ignores customer feedback and ends up losing competitiveness in the industry.

Beam Chain’s announcement has sparked sharp criticism from many well-known figures and community members in the blockchain industry. However, such intense criticism indicates that people still hold high expectations for Ethereum. After all, criticism is a form of participation - those who don’t care won’t bother to express their concerns.

Of course, the heavy responsibility is on the shoulders. As a leader in the Smart Contract platform and a pioneer in the Web3 ecosystem, Ethereum must face every obstacle and constantly prove itself. It needs to listen carefully to the sharpest criticisms, ensuring that every idea in the EIP framework, no matter how small, is not wasted.

Ethereum is a Blockchain network that I personally support, and it is also a super large-scale project with a strong narrative. However, even for such a project, it is inevitable to become complacent or lose its advantage when facing competition. In this rapidly changing industry, even a momentary relaxation can lead to being sold behind.

Crises are inevitable, and everyone will encounter challenges at some point. How ETH responds to the current challenges will be a key turning point, determining whether it is a revival or gradually forgotten.

3. Other Views

3.1 José Maria Macedo (Delphi Labs) - Disappointment with BEAM Chain

Delphi Ventures’ founding partner José Maria Macedo expressed disappointment in the Beam Chain proposal. He criticized the proposal for having very limited core improvements, only reorganization of the codebase, 4-second block time, and ‘quantum attack resistance’ feature.

In addition, he pointed out that these improvements are expected to be implemented by 2029-2030. He believes that such incremental changes are not enough to keep ETH L1 in a leading position in blockchain competition, let alone achieve long-term competitiveness.

3.2 Mert (Helius) - Beam Chain lacks competitiveness

Mert, CEO of Solana’s development platform Helius, also expressed concerns about the development schedule of Beam Chain. He predicts that if Beam Chain is not released until 2029, Ethereum will struggle to maintain its competitiveness in the rapidly evolving blockchain field.

3.3 Péter (Ethereum Foundation) - The gradual improvement of Ethereum

Core member Péter of the Ethereum Foundation has raised different concerns about the Beam Chain proposal. He believes that the proposal attempts to bundle too many changes together, which increases the possibility of errors from a technical perspective.

From a governance perspective, he warned that this approach may overlook details and spark controversy. He suggested that simple improvements should be prioritized on the Beacon Chain first, followed by gradually introducing more complex changes.

3.4 Cygaar (Abstract) - Sufficient time to ensure a safe transition

Cygaar, the developer of Abstract, emphasized the necessity of Beam Chain’s five-year roadmap. He pointed out that as the second-largest blockchain globally, Ethereum carries a TVL (Total Value Locked) of $60 billion, asset value of $400 billion, and thousands of applications relying on its network.

Implementing large-scale changes in such a decentralized and real-time operating ecosystem carries great risks, so thorough preparation and testing are essential. He believes that only by investing sufficient time can these changes be introduced in a safe and responsible manner.