As the dust settles on the Ethereum network’s long-awaited transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus, Starkware co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson gave his thoughts on its execution and potential for the future.
Speaking with Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson at the Token2049 event, Ben-Sasson shared his thoughts on the current post-Merge situation and how it affects Layer 2 projects like Starkware. In addition, the executive also gave his opinion on the adoption and interest in layer 2 products and the bear market.
Analyzing the execution of the Ethereum Merge, Ben-Sasson was pleased that the transition was seamless and said that things happened as they should. The executive explained that:
“The most important thing is that it was executed without a problem. Everything that had to happen, happened. And none of the things that people were worried about happened. And that’s great news.”
In addition, the executive also highlighted the importance of the new Ethereum network being better for the environment. “It reduces the carbon footprint. That’s the most important thing, and it also bodes very well for the potential for future improvements,” said.
According to Ben-Sasson, the merger also makes Ethereum a better settlement layer and a friendlier platform for layer 2 solutions. The manager stressed that this is a very important advance for their products in Starkware, as they could offer scaling, computational compression and other improvements to their technology.
Aside from the Ethereum Merge, Ben-Sasson also shared that most of the adoption and interest in Starkware solutions is with projects that were also successful on Ethereum Layer 1. This includes non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain games, and decentralized finance (DeFi). In addition to that, the executive shared his expectations for the future. He said that:
“I hope that at some point the ability to run much more massive computing with a very low gas footprint will lead to completely new and innovative applications that are going to be much more important.”
With everything going on, the executive also shared his belief that despite many people describing the current state of the crypto space as a bear market, his team feels differently. “We feel like a spring towards the hot summer”, said.
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