Vitalik Buterin lists 'worthwhile' ideas for developers

Vitalik Buterin lists 'worthwhile' ideas for developers to work on at ETH Seoul 2022, an Ethereum and blockchain-focused event in South Korea.

First, the Ethereum genius pushed developers to design rollups, a scaling solution that rolls up transactions to reduce costs and increase performance.

He called for greater work on zero-knowledge rollups, or zk-rollups. Buterin argued that non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs), a proof architecture, are almost as significant as blockchain technology.

"I think zk-SNARKs could be as significant to the privacy, openness, and freedom decentralized web tech movement as blockchains," Buterin stated.

zk-SNARKs are "very" effective at delivering users privacy, scalability, and security, similar to blockchains. Zero-knowledge proofs can complement blockchains, he said.

Blockchains sacrifice privacy and scalability for security. Buterin suggested, "Build ZK apps" for privacy and scalability.

He also pushed developers to prioritize privacy above scalability.

Already, there are privacy-focused protocols. Proof of Humanity (PoH) is an Ethereum blockchain-based social identification verification system.

"Ethereum is adding new protocols. They're issuing attestation at specific addresses to communicate something about the owner "Such protocols can make airdrops and decentralized governance fairer by removing identical users, added Buterin.

Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) provides digital badges using blockchain technology. This protocol verifies an address without revealing the person's identity.

Buterin urged developers to create soulbound tokens, which can't be traded or separated from their owners.

He recently criticized these tokens. Buterin co-wrote a research paper in mid-May describing how non-transferable Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) might establish a richer, pluralistic Ethereum ecosystem. Buterin proposed soulbound tokens may encode trust.

These tokens might be used for unique airdrops, or "souldrops," to choose the ideal members.

Buterin also suggests improving public good spending. Bitcoiners have quadratic funding, a better approach to support public goods, he said.

He claimed quadratic funding may be improved by improving the method and boosting security and privacy.

Buterin suggested developers should improve DAO governance. He stated DAOs' coin-based governance is centralized or attackable.

Buterin said coin-based governance is "fundamentally dysfunctional," urging developers to examine other approaches. Soulbound tokens and Proof of Humanity can assist ensure only actual persons participate in governance.