Ethereum’s Weaknesses vs Modern Blockchains: A Interview With Radix
• This article discusses the various weaknesses of Ethereum as a platform for decentralized finance (DeFi) and compares it to modern blockchain technologies.
• It examines the lack of user experience, developer experience, and scalability that contributes to DeFi’s current roadblocks.
• The article further explains how platforms such as Radix offer better-suited technology for building and scaling financial applications.
The Weaknesses of Ethereum
Despite being the so-called “king of Defi”, Ethereum’s structure isn’t exactly optimized for building and scaling financial applications. If the slew of smart contract hacks that netted attackers over $3 billion in 2022 has taught us anything, it’s that decentralized finance (DeFi) is still an immature industry. Besides exploits, DeFi still faces scaling issues related to the computational power needed to power complex transactions, and the throughput needed to support the worldwide financial system in the coming years. As the current king of DeFi, the Ethereum network is worth assessing to identify the problems and limitations contributing to the industry’s current roadblocks.
User Experience Issues
At Consensus 2023, CryptoPotato sat down with Piers Ridyard – CEO of RDX Works – to discuss ways in which Ethereum is not truly optimized for DeFi. He explained some of its shortcomings in terms of user experience, noting that programming languages such as Solidity are “like banging your head against a brick wall“ when trying to express ideas for particular financial applications. Since Solidity does not have all features needed by developers working on complex projects such as DeFi apps or exchanges this can lead to certain clunky experiences on these platforms if they are built using this language alone.
Developer Experience Issues
Ridyard also discussed how Solidity does not provide developers with enough flexibility when creating their own projects or customizing existing ones due to its limited set of features. This lack of flexibility means that developers may be forced into making time consuming workarounds or even abandoning projects altogether if they cannot get them working properly within Solidity’s limits. Furthermore, debugging code written in Solidity is a difficult task due its complexity and difficulty in understanding what each line means without prior knowledge about it beforehand.
Scaling Problems
Lastly Ridyard highlighted some issues related with scalability on Ethereum’s network such as high fees caused by its Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism which makes it expensive for users who want quick transactions or low latency payments on these platforms built on top of Ethereum’s blockchain technology. Additionally there has been much debate about whether or not Ethereum can handle global scale transaction volumes with its current architecture meaning many potential projects could be hindered from even getting off ground if they rely heavily on low latency payments or high transaction throughputs due these possible constraints posed by Ethereum’s underlying infrastructure itself.
Alternatives
Fortunately there are alternatives available now which offer better solutions designed specifically around improving developer experience while providing more efficient scaling capabilities than those currently offered by Ethereum’s infrastructure such as Radix‘ smart contract platform or other newer blockchains like Cardano and EOSIO . These innovations could potentially solve many problems encountered when developing complex distributed applications while also providing benefits related with cost savings and improved performance due their more efficient consensus mechanisms compared with traditional PoW protocols used by most blockchains today including Bitcoin and Etheruem alike .
Conclusion
Althought Etheruem currently holds dominance over most other cryptocurrencies when it comes down to decentralized finance applications there are certainly areas where it can improve upon especially when compared against more recently developed alternatives such as Radix which focus solely on providing a better end user experience along with offering developers more tools & resources needed for creating successful projects quickly & efficiently whilst also eliminating costly scaling issues faced by traditional PoW protocols found elsewhere within cryptocurrency space .