Dialogue Vitalik: zk-STARK will be as important as blockchain in 10 years

Written by: Perry

Following the Taipei Blockchain Week, NFT Taipei grandly kicked off today at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. The first program of the event featured a fireside chat with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Mask Network founder Suji Yan, discussing topics such as zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology, the FTX incident, and the future development of Ethereum.

Optimism for zk-STARK Technology

During the conversation, Vitalik stated that zk-STARK technology will become as important as blockchain in the next 10-20 years. As a powerful privacy technology, it can not only solve problems in blockchain applications but also provide better security for users of centralized systems.

Although blockchain has characteristics such as openness, censorship resistance, and adherence to rules set by developers, it also sacrifices scalability and privacy. However, with the advent of zk-STARK technology, both of these shortcomings can be addressed.

Regarding how zk-STARK solves privacy issues, Vitalik mentioned that it depends on the application, as each application is different. However, in terms of scalability, as zk-EVM technology continues to develop, transaction validation will no longer be limited to Ethereum blocks, which will help improve scalability.

How to Reduce Gas Fees

Despite the fact that Ethereum's gas fees have decreased significantly compared to a year ago, they still pose a considerable burden for many. Vitalik stated that this is an issue of "scalability." After The Merge, Ethereum entered The Surge phase, with the goal of enhancing the overall scalability of the Ethereum network through Layer 2.

Vitalik believes that Layer 2 teams will receive more attention next year, and progress in either zk-EVM or Optimistic Rollup will further help reduce gas fees.

Views on the FTX Incident

Regarding the situation of many FTX victims in Taiwan, Vitalik expressed that successful ventures in the crypto industry must be practical and maintain the true value of cryptocurrencies. While some believe that centralization is better and more efficient, and that decentralization exists merely to evade regulation, the FTX incident showed that there was no consideration for protecting users, while maintaining an open and transparent system to prevent user deception.

"The failure of FTX has burned countless users' assets, but Uniswap has been running perfectly for four years, and MakerDao has also performed quite well over the past four years." Vitalik stated.

However, Vitalik also mentioned that many people in Latin America use Binance out of practical necessity, as they can make instant transfers through Binance without worrying about losing their wallets (because centralized exchanges can help customers resolve issues through recovery processes). But rather than relying on centralized exchanges or hardware wallets, Vitalik prefers to adopt "social recovery wallets" to maintain wallet security and decentralization.

Note: **Social recovery wallets can add trusted individuals or devices as guardians, who can help restore control when the owner loses access to their wallet by signing special transactions.

Expectations for the Future of the Blockchain Industry

At the end of the speech, an audience member asked what progress in the global blockchain industry would make Vitalik happy if he were invited to NFT Taipei three years later.

Vitalik replied:

"By 2025, I hope to see that the general public needs cryptocurrencies and non-financial blockchain applications, and that these are used on-chain rather than through a Binance account."

At the same time, Vitalik hopes that people use blockchain technology because of its importance, such as for transferring assets, using DAOs as organizations and communication methods, and the use of soulbound tokens and Poaps.