Covalent’s EWM light client protects the future of Ethereum by preserving historical data
Alyssa Davidson
Posted: Oct 18, 2024 1:00 PM Updated: Oct 18, 2024 1:00 PM
Correction and fact check date: October 18, 2024, 1:00 PM
briefly
Ethereum, once praised as the “world’s computer,” is now at a critical crossroads, according to Covalent co-founder Ganesh Swami.
Ethereum, once hailed as the world computer, now faces a critical crossroads, according to Ganesh Swami, co-founder of Covalent, a modular data infrastructure layer aimed at solving key challenges in blockchain and AI.
Ganesh Swami suggests that Ethereum’s original vision is under threat. As networks get sidetracked by chasing trends like faster execution speeds and the “supersonic money” narrative, they lose focus on what made them revolutionary. The question is whether Ethereum has lost its way due to the slow development of the ecosystem and increasing competition from blockchains such as Solana and Bitcoin.
Even Ethereum team leader Péter Szilágyi expressed concern that “Ethereum is losing its game.” With inflation rising and token prices still below 2021 highs, it is clear that Ethereum needs to reassess its direction. The pressing question now is what the path forward should be for Ethereum.
Ganesh Swami Refocuses on Infrastructure as Core Solution
The Covalent co-founder points out that there is a potential solution. Ethereum’s core strength has always been its infrastructure that allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps). However, the long-term vision of the network has been overshadowed by short-term dApp hype, stagnant user growth, and siled activity within the layer 2 network.
With major upgrades such as Pectra and The Purge scheduled for late 2024, Ethereum will become lighter by removing old historical data. However, this process risks centralizing that data, which could conflict with Ethereum’s broader goal of maintaining decentralization across the network.
The Ethereum Wayback Machine (EWM) was introduced. Covalent is designed to preserve Ethereum’s historical data, ensuring it remains decentralized and accessible even while Ethereum purges old data. To further support this initiative, Covalent has launched the EWM Light Client Testnet, an important tool aimed at keeping the network decentralized.
The current light client testnet allows participants to contribute to protecting the long-term data availability of Ethereum. In doing so, they play a key role in protecting Ethereum’s decentralization and ensuring that the network lives up to its original mission of being the “world computer.”
Covalent’s large, structured, verifiable data repository improves distributed AI training and inference, reducing the likelihood that AI models will be manipulated or biased. EWM also ensures secure and decentralized access to Ethereum’s transaction history. Trusted by over 3,000 leading organizations, Covalent currently powers AI, decentralized finance (DeFi), game finance (GameFi), and other sectors by providing unlimited access to on-chain data from over 200 blockchains.
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About the author
As MPost’s resident journalist, Alisa specializes in the broad areas of cryptocurrencies, zero-knowledge proofs, investing, and Web3. With a keen eye for new trends and technologies, she provides comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers about the ever-evolving digital financial landscape.
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Alyssa Davidson
As MPost’s resident journalist, Alisa specializes in the broad areas of cryptocurrencies, zero-knowledge proofs, investing, and Web3. With a keen eye for new trends and technologies, she provides comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers about the ever-evolving digital financial landscape.
more articles