# Development Update #1 (Stage 0-1) Mapping and exploration phase for my Core Developer Apprenticeship Program : Cohort One experience. ### Why Ethereum? I believe in blockchain as a key to societal advancement. I am passionate about everything it offers, beyond cryptocurrency (DAOs, smart contract functionality, transparency, decentralization, etc.) Ethereum, thus far, I have found to be the most promising and lucrative platform, beyond (and including!) the Ethereum token. ### Ethereum highlights (high-level) that are the most intriguing/interesting moving forward: * The "merge" and what it means for usability, scalability across economic groups, countries, etc. * Layer 2 scaling methodologies and how we encourage layer 2 adoption to grow Ethereum * Molding and shaping Ethereum and blockchain for various business verticals and how to optimize the protocol to serve various unique communities and business sectors * Light clients; again - how to scale usability/portability/adoption so that Ethereum becomes a technology for "everyone" and not only the elite ### Research Goals Overview I want to research, learn, and understand how the Ethereum protocol functions and executues. I am particularly interested in Layer 2 scaling opportunities and options moving forward towards the merge and beyond - as this will help support how Ethereum can be more widely and easily used by everyone (not just an elite group with a certain amount of money). Digging into Layer 2 more in-depth, I am going to focus my research around rollup technologies and methods. In particular, zk-rollups. I need to understand and comprehend the logic at the ground level, and then I want to help improve the logic and technical documentation surrounding the zk-rollup scaling method. I want to learn at an angle of understanding the user-experience of utilizing roll-ups, how it works in code, and where the gaps and needs are in the current approach (looking ahead to next year). ## ZK-Rollups Resource Gathering * https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/zero-knowledge-rollups * https://mirror.xyz/dcbuilder.eth/QX_ELJBQBm1Iq45ktPsz8pWLZN1C52DmEtH09boZuo0 * https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/05/rollup.html * https://vitalik.ca/general/2017/11/09/starks_part_1.html * https://ethresear.ch/t/rollups-on-a-data-sharded-ethereum-2-linking-the-data-availability-with-the-execution/8237 * https://ethresear.ch/t/introducing-obscuro-a-new-decentralised-layer-2-rollup-protocol-with-data-confidentiality/11353 * https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/layer-2-rollups/