Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed switching from the present epoch-and-slot method to a Single-Slot Finality (SSF) approach. He also identified critical problems and plans for implementation.
On Sunday, June 30, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released a blog post outlining the future of Ethereum and how it may have to abandon the epoch-and-slot mechanism of its current rollup-centric plan. Buterin proposes a new SSF method with transaction time latencies of hundreds of milliseconds or less.
Ethereum eyes single-slot finality
Currently, the Ethereum Gasper consensus uses a slot-and-epoch process, with validators casting votes every 12 seconds. Furthermore, all validators get the option to vote once, across 32 seats. Later, a PBFT-like consensus mechanism takes over after two epochs (12.8 minutes), offering substantial economic guarantee known as finality. However, this technique has two fundamental issues.
- The complexity and several interaction bugs between the two slot-by-slot voting mechanism as well as the epoch-by-epoch finality mechanism.
- The 12.8-minute finality period is pretty slow and inconvenient for the users.
To simplify this, Buterin offers a single-slot finality process akin to the Tendermint consensus, in which Block-N is finalized before Block N+1 is created. The primary distinction from Tendermint is the preservation of the “inactivity leak” method. This will allow the Ethereum blockchain to continue and recover even if roughly one-third of the validators go down. Vitalik Buterin refers to this as a “Secure Speed Finality” SSF mechanism.
Addressing a few challenges with the SSF mechanism
Vitalik Buterin also discussed some of the fundamental problems related with single-slot finality (SSF) in the Ethereum ecosystem. He highlighted that a naive implementation of the SSF would force every Ethereum (ETH) stakeholder to broadcast two messages every 12 seconds, putting a huge strain on the Ethereum network. In his blog post, Buterin stated:
“While there are clever ideas to mitigate this issue, including the recent Orbit SSF proposal, it remains a challenge. Although SSF significantly improves user experience by accelerating ‘finality,’ it doesn’t eliminate the need for users to wait 5-20 seconds.”
While implementing the SSF mechanism in Ethereum, Buterin recommends using Orbit-like approaches to reduce the overall number of validators signing each slot and achieve the essential aim of lowering the 32 ETH minimum staking.
“This approach might cause the slot time to increase to approximately 16 seconds,” added Buterin. However, he added: “Designs like Orbit SSF are very recent, suggesting that the design space of slot-and-epoch designs where something like Orbit SSF is the epoch is still quite under-explored”.
The Ethereum team are currently thinking out the best way to improve finality. Last month, Buterin published upgrades created with Ethereum Layer-2 solutions. Ethereum L2 activity just reached new all-time highs.
Ethereum is thriving as an ecosystem right now with L2 activity hitting fresh all time highs every other day and the L1 roadmap being executed on with laser precision
Meanwhile, crypto twitter is acting like Ethereum is failing and in dire need of an emergency intervention
— sassal.eth/acc 🦇🔊 (@sassal0x) July 1, 2024
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The Ethereum Layer-2 Blast recently announced the launch of its native token and BLAST airdrop.
NFT sales fell 44% as crypto dipped, memecoins steal ‘mind share’ in Q2
Several PolitiFi and animal-themed memecoins surged in the second quarter, despite the larger market downturn, which included NFTs.
A recent influx of celebrity, political, and animal-themed memecoins, along with a crypto market decline, may have led to a 44% drop in non-fungible token (NFT) sales in Q2, according to Apollo Crypto’s investment head.
According to CryptoSlam data, NFT sales declined from $4.14 billion in Q1 to $2.32 billion in Q2, as part of a larger market decline.
“Q2 was a difficult market with Bitcoin declining by 15% and many altcoins performed significantly worse than that,” Henrik Andersson, chief investment officer at Apollo Crypto told.
“[But] meme coins are likely taking some of the mind share away from NFT[s]” as well, Andersson added.
Mind share is a marketing word that refers to the level of customer knowledge or popularity for a specific product or idea.
While NFT sales have slowed, Memecoins trading volumes have remained high, with $3.4 billion traded in the previous 24 hours alone, according to statistics.
Much of this has been fueled by an increase in PolitiFi memecoins related to the US presidential race, while numerous new celebrity tokens have arisen on Ethereum (ETH) and Solana.
In the second quarter, memecoins such as MAGA (TRUMP) and Pepe (PEPE) experienced price increases.
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Ordinal inscriptions to take more market share
Andersson speculated that developments in Bitcoin-based Ordinals may draw attention away from traditional NFTs in the coming months.
“Longer term we believe Bitcoin ordinals will continue to take market share in the NFT space, in particular given the many Bitcoin L2s coming to the market.”
However, network activity on Ordinals and Runes has also decreased in recent weeks.
Runes transactions have dropped 88% from their peak in June, and both Ordinals inscriptions and Runes have contributed less than 2 Bitcoin (BTC) per day in miner fees during the past week.
NFTs have bounced back before
NFTs made a slight recovery in the fourth quarter of 2023, with sales exceeding $3 billion, raising hopes for an NFT rebound in the second half of 2024.
It includes a $1.77 billion sales month in December 2023, the most since the NFT summer began to fade in June 2022.
Top NFT collectibles such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Clubs continue to have significant market capitalizations of $994.9 million and $345.9 million, respectively, according to CoinGecko.
In instance, the two largest Ordinals projects, NodeMonkes and Bitcoin Puppets, have market capitalizations of $121.1 million and $94.2 million.
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Shiba Inu news: 900M SHIB burn sparks optimism over $0.00003 price target ahead
The Shiba Inu currency documented the cremation of nearly 900 million SHIB over the last month, indicating potential future price swings. Also, the burn rate increased by more than 1000% today.
Shiba Inu (SHIB), one of the most famous dog-themed meme currencies, has made news yet again due to a massive increase in its burn rate. The most recent update from the Shibburn tracker indicated that over 900 million SHIB were burned in June. This sparked great hope for the meme coin’s future price swings as supply suffered a critical blow.
So, let’s look further into Shina Inu’s market data to see why market sentiment has turned positive.
Massive token burn ignites market optimism
Shibburn’s findings show that the token burn mechanism burnt 918.07 million SHIB during the last month through 237 transactions. This resulted in a 148.69% increase in Shiba Inu’s monthly burn rate.
Meanwhile, today’s statistics indicated that the community saw the cremation of an incredible 301.68 million coins. This resulted in a massive 1392.60% increase in the daily burn rate.
The total amount of coins incinerated from the original supply currently equals 410.727 trillion SHIB. As previously said, Shiba Inu supply suffers a significant blow, presenting a positive aspect for the coin.
Notably, as supply declines, SHIB’s price has risen significantly today, July 1, echoing the burn’s impact.
SHIB price soars
At press time, SHIB’s price was up 2.17% to $0.00001739. The 24-hour lows and highs were $0.00001690 and $0.00001759, respectively.
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It’s also worth mentioning that the price increase coincides with the overall revival of the cryptocurrency market. Meanwhile, the previously noted increase in burn rate exacerbates the situation.
According to Coinglass statistics, the Shiba Inu currency is now experiencing a market rise, with increased Futures OI and derivatives volume. SHIB OI rose 2.85% to $35.71 million, while volume surged 61.98% to $72.13 million.
However, Shiba Inu’s RSI remained at 34, indicating considerable negative pressure on the asset. This might cause volatility in SHIB’s price movement in the short term.
However, the wider market attitude remains positive, owing mostly to the ongoing enormous SHIB burning. Furthermore, Santiment’s research highlighting SHIB’s undervalued market position may pave the way for a price goal of $0.00003, according to CoinGape Media. The massive increase in burn rate strengthens Shiba Inu’s potential bullish future.
