As a veteran of the dot-com era, Newcomb sees the current state of the blockchain environment \u2014 not just Ethereum \u2014 as similar to that of the internet in 1995, when the World Wide Web\u2019s 25,000 websites could be accessed by average dial-up speeds of less than 30 kilobits per second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s slow as molasses. Our very well-known \u2018Ethereum internet computer\u2019 that claims to have the power to change the world runs at a grand total of 15 transactions per second, and we have 4,000 legitimate projects on Ethereum \u2014 very, very similar to 1995.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Just 10 years later in 2005, websites numbered over 100 million, and speeds had increased at least thirtyfold. \u201cWe had SSL, we had HTTPS by then \u2014 that little lock icon appeared in our browser. Amazon happened, Google happened,\u201d he lists. Today, in 2022, there are over 1 billion sites, and speeds over 200 megabits are common even on mobile devices far superior to anything Nokia engineers could have even dreamed of 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Just like the advent of SSL and HTTPS, which made the internet secure \u2014 allowing for online shopping and the safe transmission of private data \u2014 Newcomb is convinced that \u201cthe layer 2s that make crypto secure are where 10x moments are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also read: Attack of the zkEVMs! Crypto\u2019s 10x moment<\/strong><\/p>\nHe identifies five types of layer-2 solutions: state channels (Raiden Network, Perun), plasma (Plasma Cash, Plasma MVP), sidechains (Skale, Gnosis, Loom), Optimistic Rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Boba), and zero-knowledge rollups (Scroll, Matter). Newcomb has some strong opinions to share.<\/p>\nScaling Ethereum means creating the space for a massive increase in traffic. Source: Pexels<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIf you think that the goal of layer 2s is to scale Ethereum while maintaining its decentralization and security, sidechains do not achieve this. They have far less security than Ethereum does, because their functional chain is not on Ethereum\u2019s chain,\u201d he states matter-of-factly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He feels similarly about state channels and plasma, arguing that \u201cthey just literally don\u2019t check the boxes.\u201d This leaves only Optimistic Rollups and zk-Rollups in Newcomb\u2019s good graces. His passion comes across as a rather assertive, perhaps unfair, dismissal of a significant portion of the layer-2 landscape \u2014 but let\u2019s save that discussion for a future article.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMy mission is to make sure that Ethereum wins. I want it to be the first that gets it to go from 15 to 1,000 or 10 million transactions per second. I want to be in the room when it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Serial founder<\/strong><\/h2>\nNo stranger to technology, Newcomb has fond memories from the 70s when at 6 years old he would solder motherboards with his father, who \u201cworked for an agency I can\u2019t name.\u201d He describes a desire from an early age to be part of history, which propelled him in his career. In his view, one should find out what they think the most important thing happening is, and then participate in that thing in whatever way they can. Cellphones were the first of these grand phenomena.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhen I set out on my career, I asked myself: Is this something that\u2019s going to affect millions of people? Is it a big deal? Can I add value in some way?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In 2000, Newcomb founded LoudFire, a company that aimed to build consoles that would control smart homes, which he describes as an abject failure \u2014 \u201cexcept that we realized how to take email from a computer and put it on your Nokia phone,\u201d which was a revolutionary combination of two previously separate technologies. Naturally, the firm was sold to Nokia in 2002, which was the pre-iPhone juggernaut dominating the mobile phone industry at the time.<\/p>\n
In 2008, he founded Powerset, a natural language search engine that was essentially sold to become a central component of Microsoft\u2019s Bing. He recalls pitching the project to investor Thiel by having him type a search and then asking him to select whether Google\u2019s results or those from Newcomb\u2019s solution were better. \u201cHe chose us 70% over Google,\u201d Newcomb recalls, after which he promptly had $800,000 in the bank and a new mentor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo of my junior engineers split off to create a small company called GitHub,\u201d he remarks.<\/p>\nNewcomb\u2019s current profile pic. Source: Telegram<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJingles and resumes<\/strong><\/h2>\nNewcomb describes himself as having been something of a troublemaker growing up, applying to Salisbury University in Maryland on the basis that it was close to a beach where he could spend his days \u201cmostly ignoring school\u201d while majoring in accounting.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, he wrote an algorithm to automatically generate the scripts for used car dealerships\u2019 TV and radio commercials with \u201ccheesy music and some cheesy sales guy,\u201d charging thousands a pop. His second business while in university was effectively a pre-internet version of LinkedIn, charging students to distribute their resumes to other universities across the region via a system of interconnected printers.<\/p>\n
Upon graduating, Newcomb joined the energy company Statoil in 1993, reasoning that it seemed like an important industry to get into, as the U.S. government had just deregulated the energy markets. At just 21, he says he was trading $600 million worth of energy deals per year, and he learned to code in Object Pascal on the side in order to make his job easier by automation and easier control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the company began using his software to trade billions in annual volume, Newcomb says he realized the true power of coding and fell in love with software, eventually being promoted to head of engineering for North America. In 1998, he joined Proxicom, where he led the production of trading systems for the energy sector. By 1999, he was responsible for AT&T\u2019s internet and streaming video strategy.<\/p>\n
Also read: <\/em><\/strong>Ethereum is eating the world \u2014 \u2018You only need one internet\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThe impenetrable door<\/strong><\/h2>\nWith his history as witness, Newcomb does not think small. For him, the end game of Ethereum is security so perfect that no quantum computer can break it and decentralization so good that no nation-state can stop it \u2014 in other words, a \u201cprivate internet computer that cannot be hacked by any computer or stopped by any nation-state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to understand that this is more important than technology; this is possibly as important as what comes after capitalism and democracy,\u201d he says. He elaborates that when a new technology comes along, it normally replaces an incumbent, as when iPhone replaced Nokia.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat is the incumbent that blockchain replaces? If you think about it, it\u2019s government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If that\u2019s true, there is a desperate need for adults in the room, and Newcomb quips that he is finally old enough to be considered one. \u201cImagine we built a door that can never be knocked down. What would people do in their homes?\u201d he asks, describing the encryption of Ethereum as an impenetrable door behind which people can trade and interact freely in such a way that no government, institution or authority can reach them \u2014 a blockchain that runs on its own and is almost free to use.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a private blockchain and people decide to do business on it, then governments no longer have a way to tax people and governments are gone.\u201d Well, maybe. History is being made one way or another, and Newcomb is doing his best to be part of it.<\/p>\nSome big names have agreed to port over to zkSync\u2019s mainnet. Source: zkSync<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nRanking rollups<\/strong><\/h2>\nSo, what are these rollups to begin with, and why are they better, according to Newcomb?<\/p>\n
According to Ledger Academy:<\/p>\n
\u201cRollups \u2018roll up\u2019 or compile a bunch of transactions and turn them into one single data and submit it to the Ethereum mainnet. They take the transactions out of the mainnet and process them off-chain, convert them into one single piece of data, and submit them back to the Ethereum mainnet. This is why rollups are also called \u2018off-chain scaling solutions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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There are two primary types: Optimistic Rollups and zk-Rollups.<\/p>\n
According to Newcomb, Optimistic Rollups, as used by Optimism and Arbitrum, ultimately depend on a sophisticated game theory, which effectively allows everyone to use the blockchain. \u201cAnd then, after the fact, they check to make sure that there is no fraud.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With this system, \u201cyou could be maybe 99.999% sure there\u2019s no fraud, but you can\u2019t be 100%. It\u2019s the very best game theory we have, and it does scale Ethereum by a factor of seven, maybe up to 10.\u201d Though he concedes that it passes as a scaling solution, Newcomb expresses concerns about settlement times at increased levels of scaling, describing the process as increasingly \u201chairier\u201d and saying that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t understand how it scales beyond the original 10x.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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