Introduction
June 18, 2024 marks the one-year anniversary of the birth of Ethscriptions technology and its token ETHS on the Ethereum mainnet. This technology aims to share information and execute computations on the Ethereum mainnet at a lower cost, serving as an alternative solution to Ethereum Layer 2 and directly expanding the capacity of the mainnet. In the past year, Ethscriptions has made significant progress in technological innovation and application. This article will review the development of Ethscriptions in the past year and look forward to its future potential.
Technological Advances
1. Efficient and low-cost data storage
At the birth of the Ethscriptions protocol, data could be directly written into blocks by cleverly utilizing the calldata storage space of the Ethereum mainnet, meeting the need for permanent storage of NFT data. This innovation not only enhances the reliability and durability of data but also reduces the cost of storage. Previously, NFT data was stored in off-chain servers or cloud services like Filecoin. If the project stops its services or modifies the NFT content, users will suffer significant losses. Through the collision of ideas between the founder and the Ethereum inscription ETHS community, a solution for off-chain computation and corresponding indexing open source technology for mainnet expansion was derived and implemented during this year and began iterative upgrades.
After the Cancun upgrade in May, the introduction of Blob in EIP-4844 allows anyone to store data on Ethereum at a price 10 to 100 times cheaper than calldata. In response to this, Tom Lehman, the founder of the Ethscriptions protocol, created Blobscriptions by upgrading ESIP-8, cleverly using the new features of Ethereum to further reduce engraving costs while expanding the storage capacity of data. However, Ethereum itself does not guarantee the availability of Blob data beyond 18 days, while the indexer of Ethereum inscriptions will store this data indefinitely. This innovation has been acknowledged by Ethereum founder Vitalik in a special article, and Blobscriptions, namely ESIP-8, successfully activated the Blob price discovery mechanism after the Cancun upgrade.
2. Ethereum mainnet scaling solutions
The Facet computing platform developed based on the Ethscriptions protocol was launched on the mainnet on November 30, 2023. The platform moves a large number of deterministic and complex computing tasks off-chain for processing and synchronizes the computation results to the chain in real-time. Due to the determinism of the computation execution process itself, users do not need to bear additional costs for mainnet computation execution. The benefit of this approach is that it significantly reduces the gas fees required for on-chain computation while ensuring the security and integrity of the Ethereum mainnet. It also greatly improves the efficiency of on-chain resource utilization and can support larger-scale and more complex applications.
3. Potential for multi-chain extension
Although Ethscriptions and the Facet computing platform are developed based on Ethereum, they can be extended to all EVM chains and UTXO networks through the CSV client verification mode. Previously, overseas developers and the founder had preliminary discussions on the technical route of combining RGB with Facet, hoping to extend it to the Bitcoin network. RGB is a Turing-complete smart contract scaling solution for BTC that has been under development since 2016. Due to the lack of a unified software engineering framework, the progress of technical development has been relatively slow. The main idea is based on off-chain client verification of the UTXO model. For example, by hashing large-scale structured data in the original database and using the hash value as a credential on-chain, not only can storage and computation costs be effectively reduced, but it also expands the application scenarios of blockchain. It is expected to achieve low-cost and rapid migration of web2 data businesses to the chain and is also suitable for innovative fields such as Depin and AI (Agent) combined with blockchain.
Dapps Applications and Ecosystem
The Ethscriptions umbrella protocol and the Facet computing platform are still in the early stages, and Dapps applications and the ecosystem are yet to be enriched. With the relentless efforts of the protocol founder, their team, and newly joined developers, several infrastructure applications have been gradually launched in the ecosystem, such as FacetSwap and FacetScan, and several excellent third-party applications and platforms have also emerged.
1. On-chain DEX
FacetSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) based on Ethscriptions technology. Its gas fees are only 1/10 to 1/20 of Uniswap, and further optimization is planned to reduce it to 1/100. FacetSwap has not only successfully launched on major wallet platforms such as Binance Wallet, OK Wallet, and Gate Wallet but has also seen a surge in its user base, reaching 26,763 users. Taking the pioneer token $eths as an example, the total trading volume on FacetSwap from June 18, 2023, to May 21, 2024, exceeded 80,000 ETH (about $290 million), with a current liquidity pool of 135 WU and a highest daily trading volume of 2,000 ETH. This achievement demonstrates the tremendous potential of Ethscriptions in reducing transaction costs and improving user experience. The overall TVL on the Facet computing platform has reached $40 million.
2. On-chain native Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)
Ordex.io is another trading platform based on Ethscriptions technology, focusing on NFT and Ethereum inscription order transactions, under the umbrella of Facet. The platform not only supports the issuance and sale of NFTs but also lists and trades Ethereum inscription tokens, enabling permanent storage of on-chain data. At the same time, Ordex.io solves the high cost and low efficiency issues commonly found in the NFT market through its efficient data management and storage mechanism.
3. ERC-20 token wrapper and trading bot
On April 3, 2024, Facet launched support for ERC-20 token wrapping, allowing users to directly wrap tokens, including ERC-20, USDT, and WBTC, for low-cost trading and token launches on the Facet platform. Meanwhile, a development team formed by the original pepe founding team members has developed an exclusive trading bot called sniper based on Telegram, providing users with more convenient trading functions and services for Ethereum inscription tokens and wrapped ERC-20 tokens.
Future Outlook
In the past year, the Ethscriptions umbrella protocol and the Facet computing platform have successfully operated on the Ethereum mainnet, providing users with a lower-cost and more efficient blockchain solution. After verifying the feasibility of their technology and developing practical use cases, the focus in the future will be on the following areas:
1. Continuous technological innovation and implementation
Expected future technological innovations will focus on the following aspects:
– Performance optimization: Further improve the synchronization efficiency of on-chain and off-chain computation, and further optimize data storage and transmission costs.
– Asset composability: Achieve the composability of inscription assets through recursion and other methods.
– Enhanced security: Ensure the security of on-chain data and user assets through stricter and more advanced security measures.
– Scalability: Develop more cross-chain solutions to make Ethscriptions applicable not only to Ethereum but also to a wider range of blockchain networks.
2. Ethscriptions umbrella protocol and Facet ecosystem applications and market penetration
– Collaboration with more blockchain projects: Promote the joint development of technology and ecosystems through collaboration with other blockchain projects. This includes not only projects within the Ethereum ecosystem but also the broader blockchain field.
– Exploration of enterprise applications: Provide traditional enterprises with an efficient and low-cost data management and storage solution by hashing complex data and storing it on the chain. This will help enterprises achieve data management and storage while reducing costs.
– Open-source community development: Establish close interaction and technical exchange with the Ethereum developer community through Gitcoin, the upcoming Facet Grant, and continuous support and donations from the Ethereum inscription community. Attract more developers to join the open-source development of Ethscriptions and the Facet computing platform.
On May 17, 2024, Ethereum founder Vitalik published a new article titled “The near and mid-term future of improving the Ethereum network’s permissionlessness and decentralization”, which discussed the near-term and mid-term goals of Ethereum: continuous improvement of Ethereum’s permissionlessness and decentralization. Although this article does not mention many new technologies, it once again emphasizes the most core and important features of Ethereum: permissionlessness and decentralization.
People prefer to use the permissionless and decentralized Ethereum mainnet, and with 100% security ensured, there should be a more tolerant attitude towards innovative scalability solutions for Ethereum and increased support for the ecosystem. It is important to listen to the voices of ordinary users in the community, especially in the G G20 Web3 infrastructure voting, where the total amount ($51,000) and total votes (8881) ranked first. The decentralized computing platform Facet, developed based on the Ethscriptions umbrella protocol, achieved this.
We have every reason to believe that with the attention and promotion from Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation, as well as the efforts of the community, founders, and exchanges, Ethscriptions will further evolve and develop into an Ethereum mainnet scaling solution with official legitimacy, a strong ecosystem, a unified community, and the ability to support larger-scale user and data-level businesses.
Appendix 1: Ethscriptions Development History
– June 18, 2023: Ethscriptions protocol is born, and $ETHS inscription fair launch
– August 15, 2023: Ethscriptions protocol recognized as Ethereum infrastructure by the Ethereum Foundation
– October 9, 2023: Bitget Wallet officially supports Ethscriptions protocol
– October 12, 2023: Gate Wallet officially supports Ethscriptions protocol
– November 9, 2023: OKX Web3 Wallet officially supports Ethscriptions protocol
– November 30, 2023: Facet decentralized computing platform developed based on Ethscriptions officially launches, achieving gas interaction reduction to 1/10-1/15 of Uniswap
– December 23, 2023: BIT, BitKan, BitMart exchanges officially list $ETHS token
– December 25, 2023: OKX Web3 Wallet integrates FacetSwap, supporting flash swap transactions
– January 4, 2024: Binance Wallet officially supports Ethscriptions protocol
– February 1, 2024: Coinbase/Forbes lists Ethscriptions as a new type of digital asset token, launching a dedicated webpage
– February 25, 2024: ESIP-8 Blobscriptions released
– March 28, 2024: Ethereum founder Vitalik thanks Blobscriptions (ESIP-8) for successfully activating the Blob price discovery mechanism after the Cancun upgrade
– May 8, 2024: Facet wins the G G20 infrastructure category with a donation of $51,000, with a total of 8881 independent donation addresses
– June 1, 2024: $ETHS, the pioneer token, surpasses a total trading volume of 10.6k ETH (about $400 million), with FacetSwap accounting for over 80,000 ETH (about $290 million) of the total trading volume during the period from June 18, 2023, to May 21, 2024. The number of Ethereum addresses with Ethscriptions assets exceeds 180,000.