What do "The Surge", "The Verge", "The Purge", and "The Splurge" refer to in Ethereum's roadmap?

Okay, no problem! That's a great question, and many people are curious about these cool codenames for Ethereum. Let's break it down in plain language so you can grasp it once and for all.

You can imagine Ethereum as a constantly upgrading, decentralized world computer or a digital city. The Merge was like swapping out the city's engine for a more eco-friendly and efficient one. The upcoming phases – The Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge – are grand plans for improving the city's traffic, management, cleanup, and beautification.

Ethereum's "New Infrastructure" Blueprint

Before we dive into these four stages, we need to mention the major event that's already completed: The Merge. This was the cornerstone of the entire blueprint, switching Ethereum from an energy-intensive "mining mode" (Proof-of-Work, PoW) to an energy-efficient "staking mode" (Proof-of-Stake, PoS). It's like replacing the gasoline engine of a truck with an electric one while it's still moving at high speed.

Now, let's look at how Ethereum plans to build its "new infrastructure" after the engine swap:

1. The Surge - Widening the Roads, Solving Traffic Jams

• Core Goal: Drastically increase Ethereum's processing speed (TPS, transactions per second).
• Analogy for you:
  • Imagine that the current Ethereum main road only has one lane. During peak hours (like when a popular project launches), it gets terribly congested, and the tolls (Gas Fees) are ridiculously expensive.
  • The Surge aims to expand this single lane into a superhighway with 64 lanes. This technology is called "Sharding."
• How is it achieved?
  • Through a "precursor solution" called Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), which introduces the concept of "Blobs." You can imagine these as opening up a dedicated, cheaper lane next to the main road specifically for transporting large amounts of data.
  • "Elevated highway" networks built on Ethereum (what we commonly call Layer 2s, like Arbitrum, Optimism) can then use this cheap lane to package and transmit their transaction data, significantly reducing costs.
• What does it mean for you?
  • Transaction fees for trading, gaming, or minting NFTs on Layer 2 networks will become extremely cheap, potentially dropping from dollars to cents or even less. Ethereum will be able to support much larger-scale applications.

2. The Verge - Everyone Can Be a Supervisor

• Core Goal: Lower the barrier to running a node and make the network more decentralized.
• Analogy for you:
  • Currently, to become an Ethereum "supervisor" (validator node), you need a very, very thick ledger of history, recording everything that has ever happened in the city. This requires a very large hard drive, making it a high barrier for ordinary people.
  • The Verge is like introducing a super-efficient "indexing system" called "Verkle Trees."
• How is it achieved?
  • With this new indexing system, you no longer need the entire thick ledger. When you need to verify something, you only need a small "index card" to quickly prove its authenticity.
  • This achieves "statelessness," meaning validators hardly need to store historical state data. A computer with very modest specifications can participate in maintaining network security.
• What does it mean for you?
  • More ordinary people can participate in Ethereum's validation, preventing the network from being controlled by a few large companies or whales, making Ethereum even more secure and decentralized.

3. The Purge - A Big Cleanup for the City

• Core Goal: Clear out old, unnecessary data, "lightening the load" on nodes.
• Analogy for you:
  • Just like your computer accumulates many old files and caches you'll never use, slowing down your system, Ethereum is the same. Node computers store a vast amount of historical data from a year or two ago that hardly anyone ever looks up.
  • The Purge is like a "disk cleanup" program that regularly removes this unnecessary historical data.
• How is it achieved?
  • By introducing the "History Expiry (EIP-4444)" mechanism, nodes will no longer be forced to permanently store all historical data. For example, nodes might only need to retain data from the most recent year.
  • This "purged" old data won't disappear; it will be stored on other decentralized storage networks, available for anyone who needs to query it.
• What does it mean for you?
  • The hard drive requirements for nodes will be significantly reduced, making it cheaper to run a node. This works hand-in-hand with The Verge's goal, both aiming to make the network lighter and more decentralized.

4. The Splurge - Finishing Touches and Enhancing Facilities

• Core Goal: Implement various optimizations and fixes to make Ethereum even better to use.
• Analogy for you:
  • Once the city's main roads, management system, and sanitation system are upgraded, The Splurge is about giving the city its final "refurbishment" and "addressing any remaining gaps or issues."
  • For example, sprucing up a park corner, optimizing road signs, or adding more convenient facilities for citizens.
• How is it achieved?
  • This phase includes many important "smaller" upgrades. For example:
    • Account Abstraction: Allows you to manage your wallet in cooler ways, such as social recovery, multi-signature, and paying Gas fees with ERC20 tokens, bringing the user experience closer to internet apps.
    • Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS): Optimizes how blocks are packaged, making the network more censorship-resistant and fairer.
    • Fixing any minor issues that might have been left over from previous upgrades.
• What does it mean for you?
  • As a regular user, you'll find Ethereum wallets and applications easier to use, more secure, and offering a smoother experience.

To Summarize

I hope this explanation gives you a clear understanding of Ethereum's future development! These stages are not strictly sequential; many tasks are being worked on in parallel. Overall, Ethereum is moving steadily towards a future that is faster, cheaper, more decentralized, and easier to use.