Does iEthereum have a dilemma?

Have you heard of “Blockchain Trilemma?”

Blockchain Dilemma! Blockchain Trilemma is obviously a play on words. The trilemma for blockchain networks is in the engineering trade-offs between decentralization, security and scalability.

We have and will continue to publish articles on these necessary engineered pillars of the iEthereum network. Today we will focus on the speed and scalability of the iEthereum token itself.

Speed and scalability go hand in hand. Currently, I am very pleased with the speed of iEthereum. Yet as it scales, will my expectation be exceeded as I go to purchase a cup of coffee? Or will I be let down?

As we have learned with so many other blockchains that as blockchains scale with more users and adoptive uses, the network begins to slow. This is due to the congestion of the network. Think of driving a freeway during rush hour. It is not fun and very inefficient use of your time and productivity.

iEthereum is an ERC20 token. Therefore, it relies on the speed and scalability of the mothership; the Ethereum blockchain network.

When iEthereum originated in October of 2017, the Ethereum blockchain was a Proof of Work (POW) consensus with an average TPS (transactions per second) of only 10. Realtime TPS for Ethereum 2.0 today is around 30 TPS and up to 100 TPS. Ethereum 2.0 is upgrading over the next several years with plans expected to perform 20,000- 100,000 TPS.

Just as a reference, Visa can handle 65,000 TPS. There are plans for Ethereum to increase to 1 million TPS in the future. However, the network will need to improve these planned implementations; rollups, sharding and increased band width.

At the time of this writing, iEthereum for me has always been fast. Very fast in fact. I have never had to wait long for the transaction to complete. However, I do recognize that iEthereum is a very low volume token with very few users or adoptive use cases. As we move into the future, Can we find the balance of time between the Ethereum technology improving and the iEthereum community growing? We hope so.

Currently, is iEthereum fast enough?

At the moment I say yes. Especially compared to Bitcoin or even Ethereum itself. Regardless of all the techies that explain to me that all ERC20 tokens relative speed and scalability is dependent on the capacity of the overall Ethereum network; my personal experience tells me something different. I am happy with my less than 10-15 second transaction experiences.

It’s worth noting that iEthereum’s speed and scalability could face challenges as the adoption of the token grows and the number of users increases. Although my experience with iEthereum has been consistently fast, the network may encounter potential bottlenecks as transaction volume rises, which could impact processing times.

One possible solution for maintaining efficient transactions is the use of second-layer scaling solutions like zk rollups, state channels or sidechains. These could help offload some transaction traffic from the main Ethereum blockchain, allowing for faster and cheaper transactions while still benefiting from the security of the underlying blockchain. Additionally, we continue to see the Ethereum network itself be upgraded. For instance, we will be seeing the Pectra upgrade this year hopefully.

The original iEthereum whitepaper written in 2017 states that you can send iEthereum anywhere on the planet instantly and have it confirmed as spendable within 30 seconds. This does not include the overall upgrades to Ethereum now and into the future.

There will be other technical innovations or optimizations on the horizon that might improve iEthereum's performance. For example, as more research is conducted on blockchain technology, novel consensus mechanisms and transaction processing techniques might emerge that could further enhance speed and scalability that are beyond that of the current objections and goals of the planned Ethereum network upgrades.

While iEthereum benefits from the ongoing improvements to the Ethereum network, there may also be opportunities to integrate additional functionalities and enhancements directly into the iEthereum token. This could involve exploring new partnerships or participating in initiatives that aim to address the broader blockchain trilemma, ensuring iEthereum's relevance and competitive edge in the evolving landscape of digital assets.

My opinion, is that Ethereum has lots of room for growth opportunities especially in terms of speed and scalability! And what that means for iEthereum is up for the mind to see.

iEther way, We see value!