Ethereum Upgrade "The Surge": A Technological Revolution from 15 TPS to 100,000+ TPS

Ethereum is undergoing a profound performance transformation. As the world’s largest smart contract platform, this ETH upgrade project is called “The Surge,” aiming to increase network capacity to over 100,000 transactions per second while maintaining decentralization and security. Currently, ETH is priced at $2.93K. In this upgrade, both token holders and ecosystem participants will gain substantial benefits.

Why does Ethereum need an upgrade? Current status and bottlenecks

Currently, Ethereum mainnet (Layer 1) has a processing capacity of about 15-30 TPS. This number may not sound low, but in practical applications, issues are evident. When the network is congested, gas fees can soar to dozens of dollars, and a simple token transfer can cost more than the transaction itself.

This is the core dilemma The Surge aims to solve: how to make Ethereum fast and efficient like traditional payment networks while ensuring decentralization and security.

Vitalik Buterin proposed a key concept when designing this ETH upgrade roadmap — Ethereum should not be a fragmented chain but a unified ecosystem. Layer 1, Layer 2, and even future parallel processing layers should feel like a seamless whole.

The core pillars of The Surge: five major technical solutions

1. Layer 2 Rollups — the true throughput engine

Layer 2 Rollups are the main force behind The Surge. Their working principle is: bundle multiple transactions off-chain, then submit the compressed result to the Ethereum mainnet. It’s like consolidating all freight bills of a cargo train into one report instead of submitting them individually.

According to L2Beat data, the total value locked (TVL) in the Layer 2 ecosystem has surged by 216% over the past year, surpassing $3.8 billion. What does this indicate? It shows that users are voting with their feet — Layer 2 maturity and usability are rapidly improving.

Layer 2 mainly divides into two categories:

Optimistic Rollups: assume all transactions are valid unless challenged within a set timeframe. Arbitrum and Optimism adopt this approach, offering fast speeds and low costs.

Zero-Knowledge Rollups: use zk-proofs to directly verify transaction validity. Projects like zkSync follow this route, providing stronger security guarantees but with higher complexity.

( 2. DAS (Data Availability Sampling) — the advent of light nodes

This may be the most innovative part of The Surge. Traditionally, Ethereum nodes need to download and verify all data, which causes the cost of running a node to skyrocket as data volume increases, ultimately leading to centralization.

DAS changes the game. It allows nodes to verify only a small portion of data, ensuring the integrity of the entire dataset. It’s like inspecting a large warehouse: inspectors don’t need to check each item individually but can sample randomly to assess overall quality.

In the PeerDAS version, different nodes verify different data segments and collaborate via P2P networks to complete full verification. This makes light nodes possible and lowers the barrier to participating in the network.

) 3. Proto-Danksharding (Data Blob) — already underway

The Dencun upgrade launched in Q1 2024 introduced EIP-4844, which added the concept of “Blob.” A Blob is a data structure optimized for Rollups, with costs significantly lower than regular calldata.

This improvement has drastically reduced transaction fees on Arbitrum and Optimism. In some scenarios, ETH transfer costs have dropped from a few dollars to between $0.24 and $0.78.

4. Plasma and Data Compression — a dual approach

Plasma processes off-chain transactions, submitting only settlement summaries to the main chain. Coupled with compression techniques like BLS signature aggregation, this can further reduce on-chain data usage.

5. Optimizations within Layer 1 itself

Even if Layer 2 shoulders most of the load, Layer 1 must evolve:

• Gas limit increases: but caution is needed to avoid excessive increases that raise node operation costs and harm decentralization.
• EOF (Ethereum Object Format): makes smart contract execution more efficient.
• Multi-dimensional Gas pricing: charges separately for computation, data, and storage to ensure fairer pricing.
• Native Rollup support: protocol layer directly supports multiple parallel EVM execution threads.

The Surge timeline: from 2024 to 2026+

Q1 2024: Proto-Danksharding launched, Blob reduces Layer 2 costs.

2024-2025: Major Rollups like Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync undergo iterations, introducing SNARKs and other proof systems; PeerDAS and 2D DAS further expand.

End of 2025: EOF goes live, multi-dimensional Gas pricing implemented, native Rollup integrated into Ethereum protocol.

2026 and beyond: Full Danksharding deployment, Ethereum sharded into multiple data shards, with the ultimate goal of surpassing 100,000 TPS.

Subsequent phases include The Splurge (various optimizations), The Verge (stateless clients), The Purge (removing redundant data), forming a complete evolution roadmap for Ethereum.

How will this ETH upgrade change user experience

For ordinary users, The Surge offers three direct benefits:

Transaction fee collapse: Layer 2 has already pushed fees below $1. After the upgrade, gas fees on the mainnet will become more reasonable. This makes small transfers, NFT interactions, and DeFi operations economically feasible.

Speed improvements: Confirmations will accelerate further from seconds, bringing on-chain application user experience closer to Web2.

Seamless cross-layer experience: Asset transfers between Layer 1 and Layer 2 will be as simple as moving within the same wallet. No more complex cross-chain bridges, creating a truly unified ecosystem.

For developers, improved EVM execution efficiency, cheaper storage costs, and higher throughput mean building more complex applications — from high-frequency DeFi protocols to on-chain games and data-intensive apps — becomes possible.

Security considerations: balancing scalability and security

Scaling isn’t free. Higher throughput means more validation work. The security of Layer 2 depends on the maturity of cryptographic proof systems.

Vitalik also pointed out that quantum computing poses a long-term threat. The Ethereum community is researching post-quantum cryptography to prepare for the quantum era.

At the same time, Layer 2 systems may have implementation vulnerabilities, temporary network failures, or risks of fee volatility during transitions. Users need to understand these trade-offs.

Looking ahead: the path after Danksharding

The Surge is just one stop in Ethereum’s evolution. Complete Danksharding will shard data, allowing multiple parallel data availability chains to run simultaneously. In an ideal scenario, Ethereum will become a truly global settlement layer capable of supporting billions of users worldwide.

Summary

The Surge embodies Ethereum’s ambition — to solve the fundamental paradox of blockchain: how to balance decentralization, security, and scalability through layered architecture and cryptographic innovation.

From the technical roadmap, this ETH upgrade is a phased, multi-year systematic project. The explosive growth of Layer 2, the implementation of Proto-Danksharding, and the future full Danksharding form a clear evolutionary path.

For ETH holders and users of the Ethereum ecosystem, this means the network’s practical usability will be greatly enhanced. Lower costs, faster speeds, better user experience — these are no longer promises but are gradually becoming reality. However, like any major system upgrade, vigilance and ongoing attention are still necessary.