Top Ethereum Improvement Proposals Explained

Now that we have all come across what Ethereum is and why they are working on so many upgrades to further improve the Ethereum blockchain, let us today take a look into EIPs, to understand the blockchain better. Firstly, it is important to note that one of the important processes that is responsible for the development of Ethereum, happens with the acquaintances of Ethereum Improvements Proposals or else known as EIPs.

EIPs are very important to the blockchain’s evolution, and all of the network upgrade so far has come with its own set of proposals. Some of them can be categorised as:

• proposals for modifications to algorithms that will enable the calculation of gas fees;
• proposals that suggested implementations which can improve transaction functionality or better the mining difficulty;
• proposals that catered to suggestions for the platform to makes changes to its monetary policy.

In short, EIPs are refinements to the core blockchain that must be implemented by each Ethereum client on the network in order to maintain consensus. But, how was the Ethereum Improvement Proposals introduced? Who are eligible to propose them, and how do these EIPs get approved? Let’s dive in to get a better understanding.

Additional Read: Ethereum Gas Fees Explained

What is EIP?

To put it into perspective, EIP or Ethereum Improvements Proposals are a technical documentary structure that allows the standardization of the development of improvements that are to take place within Ethereum by permitting any individual to put forwards their proposals. The proposals that are shared contains ways that can improve the development of this Ethereum blockchain.

But why was EIP the way for improvements to be implemented? Since there is the requirement of a high level of organization in decentralized development communities in order to manage and decide on the next improvements on the blockchain that will be integrated into the project; making it via EIPs makes the whole process much easier. Following the EIPs, any developer can bring in a suggestion of an improvement proposal which will then be discussed within the community. For the idea of the EIPs to be presented, the developer who has proposed the idea must explain the proposal in detail. The description should also argue about why its implementation in the project is positive while also clearly demonstrating its viability and impact. Once the discussion within the community has determined the impact, following that the EIPs may or may not be included within the Ethereum protocol.

It is because of this that the creation of these EIPs are explicit and has a very clear and defined objective; which is to propose what the future of the project should look like to the community, therefore giving everyone the opportunity to discuss it.

How EIP works?

As the process for EIPs go, it starts with the process of getting to the idea or the proposal by the author of the EIP. As a detailed explanation of the processes are required to be submitted, the following steps are followed by the author:

Presenting the idea

The first step is not that detailed for an EIP. It is when the author only need to present the upgrade as a suggestion on the Ethereum forums. It is mainly done so that they can receive a feedback about the EIP from the community in order to either carry on or not with the development of the EIP in a more elaborate way.

Creating the draft

Once the idea has already taken up a shape it has to be executed after surpassing the organizational parameters that is expected from an EIP. While it is active and in a work-in-progress mode, where one can submit further follow-up requests with more changes to their draft to the point where one may think the EIP is mature and is ready to move to the next state.

Final Draft

It is during the third stage that the corrected draft gets to be featured on the EIPs Ethereum website. The thought process behind this stage is to present the proposed EIP to an even greatest number of people within the community with complete corrections, and thus creating a fully functional and revised implementation of the EIP.

Acceptance

In this penultimate stage, further changes to the EIP draft is unlikely, thus the Ethereum client developers should consider this EIP for inclusion.

Final Presentation

This is where the work on the proposal starts to take shape. However, there are certain states that can be marked further to this point. They are:

1. Misprints: They can be looked at and changed from the finished proposal,
2. Assets: Some informational and process EIPs are able to contain a status of “Active” if they never have the need to be completed.
3. Cancelled: The original authors can cancel an EIP if they no longer seek to implement that EIP or if it stands to be redundant.
4. Rejected: If an EIP is fundamentally broken or if there is a Core EIP that has been rejected by the Core Devs, then those EIPs will not be implemented.
5. Replaced: If an EIP that was previously passed as final but has come to be not accepted as cutting edge anymore, then another EIP, which is in the Final state, will be referred to as the Superseded EIP.

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Top Ethereum Improvements Proposal

Now that we have understood how these tokens work, from their initiation to their implementation, below are some of the top ethereum improvements proposal that had provided significant improvements within the Ethereum network.

ERC 20: 

ERC-20 tokens which is the abridged version of Ethereum Request for Comment 20, are the executed standard for fungible tokens that are created using the Ethereum blockchain. This might remind you of NFTs, but the main difference lies in the fact that fungible tokens are interchangeable while NFTs, which are non fungible tokens, are not. The ERC-20 allows tokens to be exchanged within blockchains for various purposes like trading as an exchange for other tokens or investments.

ERC 721: 

Described in the Ethereum website, ERC721 is standard for NFT, in other words, this type of Token is unique and can have a different value than another Token from the same Smart Contract, may be due to its age, rarity or even something else like its visual. Visual? Yes, NFTs, which are digital arts, follow the ERC721 standard. The most unique rule that made it so valuable within the crypto space is its property of non-fungibility. Not one NFT can be used to replace any other. Each and every NFT is unique.

ERC 1155: 

Since the fundamental differences of the ERC 20 token and the ERC 721 token barred them for being able to be wrapped into the same smart contract, ERC-1155 solves for this by combining the two token standards. ERC-1155 is a token standard that enables the efficient transfer of fungible and non-fungible tokens in a single transaction.

ERC 3675:

Proposed by the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik, Danny Ryan and Mikhail Kalinin, the ERC 3675 introduces a set of changes not only to the block structure, block processing, but also to fork choice rule and network interface. Being presented back on 2021, the proposition finally kicked the gear after the network’s transition to Proof of Stake consensus.

ERC 1559:

This EIP proposal had proposed to change the method for how commissions are handled within the network. The EIP-1559 proposed to create a commission burning mechanism that will prevent Ethereum from having higher inflation, while also expanding the ability of Ethereum blocks to include more transactions in order to decrease the network congestion.

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Conclusion

With so much innovation going around the newer phase of the Web3 world, where Ethereum has only just begun its series of upgrades, there is only so much left to explore. With further upgrades, more EIPs will be explored and implemented. As the main focus of Ethereum Improvements Proposals is improving the network, we have much more to encounter in the coming years. Stay tuned to CoinDCX blogs for more information.

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