Buterin Claims Ethereum Simplicity is Still Possible, as Developers Warn of Increasing Complexity

cryptonews.com:

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has said it is still possible to reduce Ethereum's complexity while improving its functionality. The statement comes as some developers have recently complained about Ethereum's complexity. 

In a recent blog post titled 'The roads not taken', Buterin looked into some of Ethereum's "forks-in-the-road." He said that the developers team "had a tradeoff between something more complex and something simpler," noting that sometimes they chose the simpler thing, but at times, they reach for the more complex thing.

For instance, he mentioned the Gasper proof of stake (PoS) version, which Ethereum is soon going to merge into, saying that it is complex but a very powerful system. In comparison, there are much simpler and weaker versions of PoS that could have been good candidates, but they don't offer the advantages of Gasper.

"The reason why Gasper is more complex than these algorithms is simply that it tries to accomplish much more than they do," Buterin said. "But if we had been more modest at the beginning, we could have focused on achieving a more limited set of objectives first."

Buterin detailed that Ethereum has been struggling between two visions: one that values safety and simplicity (like Bitcoin (BTC)), and another that intends to make Ethereum a highly performant and functional platform for building advanced applications.

"My personal dream is to try to achieve both visions at the same time," he said, adding that it would take a long time and a great deal of effort to achieve this goal. However, he noted it is still possible to reduce complexity going forward.

"Today, there are a lot of things we cannot change, but there are many things that we still can, and there is still a path