Community governance on Ethereum: The EIPs
Tags: blockchain, cryptocurrency, ethereum
Published: 2024-02-21 03:25:27

**Introduction**

In every ecosystem and business model, there is a need to improve the products almost every time for upgrades to give the users a better experience. There is a way to know the upgrade that these users want and requirement to continue to give a better user experience, and this is by collecting reviews of products or services from users, both positive and negative. This makes the user more interested and comfortable using the product since their requests have been granted. By this way, the products and services have a higher chance of thriving for a long time.

This method is also applicable in decentralized finance cryptocurrency where the community decides how the ecosystem develops, evolves and keeps running by their suggestions and proposals.

At the same time the community can make suggestions, there has to be templates that the community can follow to edit and make the suggestions. That’s where EIPs come in, so they serve as formal proposals that suggest modifications or enhancements to various aspects of the ethereum network, also in such a way that any community member can make changes easily.

An Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is a design document providing information to the Ethereum community, typically to improve the Ethereum network. EIPs follow a standardized format and are used to propose changes to the Ethereum blockchain.

You should know Ethereum is a decentralized platform for building decentralized applications (DApps), and EIPs are a way for the community to suggest and discuss improvements to the network’s functionality, protocols, and standards.

**Why EIPs?**

We have used ERC 20 for tokens, ERC 721A for Non fungible tokens(NFT) and even the improved ERC 1155 for both tokens and NFTs. Before they were developed, they started off as ideas to proposals, then agreed upon in the community now later acted on. EIPs take the responsibility for building these innovations to make decentralization look cool and easily adopted on the ethereum blockchain.

Overall, the aim of EIPs is to improve the functions and scalability i.e be used or produced in a range of capabilities.

It gives the ethereum community the power to propose and discuss recent improvements and proposals including new ideas and features. It makes users comfortable on the ethereum blockchain.

From the developers view, EIPs make it easy for them to implement and try out the new ideas that are already standardized and documented in a formal manner. So, it is in such a way that it is easy to understand, such that new projects coming up will have the proposed community ideas.

Also, There’s room for continuous improvement to the blockchain as the community keeps suggesting ideas and proposals, which will be developed on.

Protocol upgrades is also an important use of EIPs. Significant upgrades that occur and implemented as a result of the proposals by the community like in the case of

- Proof of work to Proof of stake as well as

- Development of Zero Knowledge, Layer one, Layer two and Layer three blockchains on ethereum and so on.

This really helped developers improve users’ experience on the ethereum blockchain, also as a very necessary tool for managing changes on the blockchain.

In conclusion, it allows contributions from different categories of the community, starting from researchers, developers, investors and some stakeholders in the community. Efforts from these people really matter for improvement.


**How do EIPs work?**

EIPs are very unique and transparent, and earlier, we have discussed how important they are in community governance in ethereum. EIPs are literally a bunch of feedback and ideas for improvement that are implemented to add to the features. However, there are a certain steps and process by which EIPs are made to have impact on the development on ethereum and the steps are highlighted below:

1. **Proposal or feedback**: This is the first step and every new feature or development made starts from proposals, feedback on existing protocols and all forms of contributions from the community. This usually follows a specific format and includes details such as the convincing reasons behind the proposal or feedback, specific technical features, potential benefits or advantages, and any potential risks or drawbacks.

2. **Drafting and Discussion:** Once the proposal is submitted, it is tendered to the community, mostly on all social media channels, and allows community members to express how they feel about the new proposal by asking questions, providing feedback, modifications and also providing alternative ideas. Sometimes, it is prolonged to gather enough opinions and information for the next phase.

3. **Formalization**: After gathering the opinions from the community, and addressing any concerns or questions raised during the discussion period, the proposer may revise the EIP document to include the feedback and finalize the proposal. Then, the EIP is given a number and officially becomes part of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal repository- like a library where the proposals are stored.

4. **Review and Consensus:** After being formalized, the EIP is more seriously reviewed, and it might include technical analysis, security assessments , more possible studies, and other considerations to ensure that the proposed changes are sound and align with the goals of the Ethereum project to be developed.

5. **Implementation:** After the review and the proposal is possible and beneficial, then the developers get to work, and start implementing the proposed changes into the ethereum blockchain. This involves writing codes, running tests, and preparing for deployment in a future network upgrade or hard fork.

6. **Deployment and Activation:** Once the implementation is complete, the changes introduced by the EIP are deployed to the Ethereum network through a network upgrade or hard fork. This process requires coordination among Ethereum node operators, miners, developers, and other participants to ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruptions to the network.

7. **Adoption and Monitoring:** After deployment, the new features or improvements introduced by the EIP are adopted by the community, users, developers, and other stakeholders within the Ethereum ecosystem. There is always ongoing monitoring and evaluation to help assess the impact of the changes and identify any issues or areas for further improvement.


**CONCLUSION**

EIPs help Ethereum improve by creating a clear process where anyone can suggest changes. These suggestions are discussed openly in the community. Once a proposal is finalized, it’s reviewed by experts to make sure it fits with Ethereum’s goals. If it’s approved, developers work on making the changes and they’re eventually added to Ethereum. This way, Ethereum keeps getting better while staying true to its principles.