Introdukshon to Ethereum gofanans

If nor one own Ethereum, hau dem dey make di disishon about past and fushure shanjis to Ethereum? Ethereum gofanans refer to di process wey dey allow dem make such disishon.

Oya Wetin be governance?

Gofanans na di system dem dey yus wey allow dem make disishin. For one organizashonal strukshure, di exekutive team abi one board if direktor fit get final sey for disishon-making. Abi perhaps shiaholdas vote on proposals to make shanj. For political system, pipol wey dem elect for offis fit enforce laws wey dey attempt to reprisent di disaya of pipol wey elect dem for offishial role.

Disentralize gofanans

Nor one pesin dey own abi kontrol di Ethereum protokol, but dem still nid make disishons about to dey impliment shanjis to sure sey di netwok stay long and prospa. Dis lack of ownaship dey make tradishonal organisashonal gofanans inkompatibol solushon.

Ethereum Gofanans

Ethereum gofanans na di process by wich dem dey make protokol shanjis. Im dey impotant to point out sey dis process nor rilate to hau pipol and aplikashons dey yus di protokol - Ethereum nor nid pamishon. Anyone from anywia in di world fot patisipate in on-chain aktivitis. No rules set for who fit abi nor fit build one aplikashon abi send one transakshon. Haueva, process dey to propose shanjis to di kore protokol, wey disentralize aplikashons dey run. Sinse plenti pipol dipend on Ethereum stability, very high koordinashon threshold dey for main shanjis, wey inklude soshial and teknika process, to ensure any shanjis to Ethereum dey sekure and all di komunity dey suppot am.

On-chain vs off-chain gofanans

Blockchain teknology dey allow for new gofanans kapabilitis, wey dem sabi as on-chain gofanans. On-chain gofanans na wen stakeholda votes dey diside protokol shanjis wey dem propose, ushusaly by holdas of one gofanans token, and voting dey hapun on di blockchain. Wit some forms of on-chain gofanans, di protokol shanjis wey dem propose dey for kode wey dem write and dem automatikaly impliment if di stakeholdas appruf di shanjis thru signing one transakshon.

Di opposite way, off-chain gofanans, na wia any protokol shanj disishon dey hapun thru one informal process of soshial diskushon, wey, if dem approach am, go yus kode impliment am.

Ethereum gofanans dey hapun off-chain wit plenti stakeholdas wey involve in di process.

As yu dey di protokol level Ethereum gofanans na off-chain, plenti yus kases wey build on top Ethereum, such as DAOs, yus on-chain gofanans.

Who dey involve?

Plenti stakeholdas dey for Ethereum komunity, wey ish dey play one role in di gofanans process. As im start from di stakeholdas far from di protokol and dey zoom in, wi get:

ETher holdas: dis pipol hold one arbitary amount of ETH. More tok ETH.
Aplikashon Users: dis pipol dey interact wit aplikashon on di Ethereum blockchain.
Aplikashon/Tooling Divelopas: dis pipol dey write aplikashons wey dey run ontop di Ethereum blockchain (e.g. DeFi, NFTs, etc.) dem dey also build tooling wey pipol fit yus wit Ethereum (e.g. wallets, test suites, etc.). More on dapps.
Pipol wey dey operate Node: dis pipol dey run nodes wey dey propagate blocks and transakshons, di node dey also reject any transakshon abi block wey nor koret wey dem kome akross. More on nodes.
EIP Authors: na dis pipol dey propose shanjis to di Ethereun protokol, in di form of Ethereum Imprufment Proposals (EIPs). More on EIPs.
Validators: na dis pipol dey run nodes wey fit add new blocks to di Ethereum blockchain.
Protokol Divelopas (a.k.a. "Kore Divelopas"): dis pipol dey maintain di varios Ethereum implimentashons (e.g. go-ethereum, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon, Reth at di exekushon layer abi Prysm, Lighthouse, Nimbus, Teku, Lodestar, Grandie at di konsensus layer). More on Ethereum klients.

Notes: any individual fit bi part of plenti groups (e.g. one protokol divelopa fit shampion one EIP, and run one beakon chain validator, and yus DeFi aplikashons). For konsepshual klarity, im izy pass to distinguish bitwin dem, doh.

Wetin bi EIP?

One impotant process dem yus in Ethereum gofanans na di proposal of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). EIPs na standards wey dey spesify potenshial new feature abi process for Ethereum. Anyone inside di Ethereum komunity fit kreate one EIP. If yu get intrest to dey write one EIP abi to dey patisipate in peer-review and/abi gofanans, si:

Di formal process

Di formal process to dey introdus shanjis to di Ethereum protokol na di following:

Make yu propose a Kore EIP: as dem don explain am for EIP-1(opens in a new tab), di numba one step wen yu wan take to propose one shanj to Ethereum na to ditail am for Core EIP. Dis go act as di offishial spesifikashon for one EIP wey Protokol Divelopas go impliment if dem asept am.
Show yor EIP give dem Protokol Divelopas: wen yu don write Kore EIP and pipol don tok dem mind, yu go nid show am to Protokol Divelopas. Yu fit start am up for diskushon for AllCoreDevs koll(opens in a new tab). E fit bi sey some diskushons go don already hapun for di Ethereum Magician's forum(opens in a new tab) abi for di Ethereum R&D Discord(opens in a new tab).

Di tin wey go hapun afta dis one na:

Dem go konsida EIP for one fushure netwok upgrade
Dem go rikwest teknika shanjis
Dem fit rijet am if im nor bi priority abi di imprufment nor big enuf kompia to di divelopment effort

Iterate towods one final proposal: afta yu don risiv feedbak from all relivant stakeholdas, yu fit nid to make shanjis to yor first proposal to impruf im sekurity abi make yu do wetin difren users nid wella. Wons yor EIP don inkorporate all di shanjis yu bilif sey dey necessary, yu go nid prisent am again to Protokol Divelopas. Yu go den muv to di next step of dis process, abi new konsan go emerge, as im nid anoda round of iterashons on yor proposal.
EIP dem Inklude for Network Upgrade: Assume sey EIP don impruf, dem don test and impliment am, im get plan as part of one netwok upgrade. Wit di high koordinashon kost of netwok upgrades (efrione nid to upgrade at di same taim), dem dey always bundol EIPs togeda for upgrades.
Network Upgrade Aktivated: afta di netwok upgrade don aktivate, di EIP go live on di Ethereum netwok. Note: netwok upgrades dey ushualy aktivate on testnets bifor dem aktivate on di Ethereum Mainnet.

Dis flow, as dem simplify am, dey give ovaview of di signifikant stagis for protokol shanj to dey aktivate on Ethereum. Nau, make wi look at di informal faktors we dey hapun durin dis process.

Di informal process

To sabi wetin don hapun bifor

EIP SHampions supose sabi di wok wey don hapun bifor wella, and proposal bifor dem kreate one EIP wey dem fit konsida wella for diployment on di Ethereum Mainnet. Dis way, di EIP fit bring somtin new wey dem neva rijet bifor. The three main places wey yu fit risearch na EIP repository(opens in a new tab), Ethereum Magicians(opens in a new tab) and ethresear.ch(opens in a new tab).

Groups wey dey wok

Dem fit impliment di draft of EIP wey dem don make bifor on di Ethereum Mailnet witout edits abi shanjis. Generaly, EIP Shampions go wok wit one subset of Protokol Divelopas to spesify, impliment, test, iterate, and finalaiz dem proposal. For history matta, dis group wey dey wok nid plenti months (and somtaims years!) of wok. Again, EIP Shampions for such shanjis supose involve relivant Aplikashon/Tooling Divelopas early in dem effot to gada end-user feedbak and ridus any diployment risk.

Komunity Konsensus

As some EIPs bit diret teknika imprufment wit smoll palava, some dey komplex and kome wit tradeoffs wey fit affect difren stakeholdas for difren ways. Dis mean some EIPs dey more kontenshios in di komunity pass odas.

E no get playbook wey we fit follow to take handle proposals wey no go cause gbege. Dis na one rizut of Ethereum disentralize disihn wia nor singol stakeholda group fit yus forse on oda thru brute forse: protokol divelopas fit shuse make im nor impliment kode shanjis; node operators fit nor shuse to run di latest Ethereum klient; aplikashon teams and users fit nor shuse to transact on di chain. Sinse Protokol Divelopas nor get way to forse pipol to adopt netwok upgrades, dem go generaly afoid to dey impliment EIPs wia di kontenshiosnes pass di benefits to di broada komunity.

Dem ekspet EIP Shampions to solicit feedbak from all relivant stakeholdas. If yu find yorsef di shampion of one kontenshios EIP, yu supose try and address objeshons to build konsensus around yor EIP. Bikos di siza and divasity of di Ethereum komunity, nor singol metrik (e.g. one koin vote) dem fit yus dat to gauge komunity konsensus, and ekspet EIP Shampions to adapt to di situashon of dem proposal.

Biyond di sekurity of di Ethereum netwok, signifikant weight dey on Protokol Divelopas on wetin Aplikashon/Tooling Divelopas and Aplikashon Users value, bikos dem dey yus and dey divelop on Ethereum make dem atrative for oda stakeholdas. Also, wi nid impliment EIPs akross all klient implimentashons, and difren teams dey manaj ish of dis klients. Part of dis process ushualy mean to dey konvins plenti teams of Protokol Divelopas sey one patikular shanj get value and im dey helep end-users abi solve one sekurity issue.

To dey handol disagreements

To have plenti stakeholdas wit difren motivashons and bilif means sey disagriment nor komon.

Generaly, yu fit handol disagriment wit long-form diskushon in publik forum to ondastand di root of di palava and alow anyone to weigh in. Normaly, one group gree sey di oda koret, or dem don ashive one happy way. If one group feel strong enuf, to dey yus forse thru one partikula shanj fit rizut in one chain split. One chain split na wen some stakeholdas protest to dey impliment one protokol shanj wey rizut in difren, vashons of di protokol operating wey nor dey kompatibol, from wich two difren blockchains komot.

Di DAO fork

Forks na wen major teknika upgrades abi shanjis wi nid to make to netwok and shanj di "rules" of di protokol. Ethereum klients supose update dem softwia to impliment di new fork rules.

Di DAO fork dey respond to di 2016 DAO attak(opens in a new tab) wia insekure kontract don drain for ova 3.6 million ETH in di hack. Di fork don muv di funds from di faulty kontract to one new kontract as en dey alow anyone wey lost funds in di hack to rikova dem.

Di Ethereum komunity don vote dis kourse of akshon. Any ETH holder fit vote through transaction forvoting platform(opens in a new tab). Di disishon to fork don rish ova 85% of di votes.

Im dey impotant to note dat as di protokol make fork to revert di hack, wi fit debate di weight wey di vote karry as im dey diside to fork for a few rizins:

Di turnout to vote dey low wella
Plenti pipol nor sabi di vote dey hapun
Di vote only reprisent ETH holdas, nor bi any of di oda patisipants in di system

One subset of di komunity don rifus to fork, largely bikos dem feel di DAO insident nor bi difect in di protokol. Dem go on to form Ethereum Klasik(opens in a new tab).

Tuday, di Ethereum komunity don adopt one polisy of non-intavenshon in kase of kontract bugs abi lost funds to maintain di kredibol neutrality of di system.

Make yu wosh more on di DAO hack:

Di utility of forking

Di Ethereum/Ethereum Klasik fork na one ogbonge eksampol of one healthy fork. Wi get two groups wey disagree wella wit ish oda on some kore values to feel am worth di risks wey involve to folow dem spesifik kourse of akshon.

Di ability to fork in di fase of signifikant politika, filosofika abi ekonomik difrens dey play one large part in di success of Ethereum gofanans. Witout di ability to fork di alternative dey go in-fightin, to dey forse pipol wey not wont to eventualy form Ethereum Klasik and dey inkrease difren vishon of hau sucess for Ethereum dey look.

Beacon Chain gofanans

Di Ethereum gofanans process dey somtaims trade off speed and effishiensy for openess and inklusivity. In order to accelerate di divelopment of di Beacon Chain, dem launch am separate from di proof-of-work Ethereum netwok and don folow im own gofanans praktis.

As di spesifikashon and divelopment implimentashon na always fully open sorse, dem nor yus di formal process dem yus to propose updates wey dem diskribe above. Na dis one make am posibol for risearchas and implimentas to kwikly agree on shanjis.

Wen Beacon Chain join wit di Ethereum exekushon layer for September 15, 2022 Di Merge komplete as part of di Paris netwok upgrade. Di proposal EIP-3675(opens in a new tab) kon shanj name from 'Last Koll' to 'Final', na dis one make di transishon to proof-of-stake komplete.