Ethereum is set to undergo its biggest update since The Merge

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an updated roadmap for the network’s development, calling it the most significant transformation of the blockchain since the transition to proof-of-stake in 2022. According to him, Ethereum is «reinventing itself» and embarking on the third major iteration of its existence.

The announcement came on Saturday following a meeting of Ethereum researchers in Berlin. Buterin shared the meeting’s outcomes along with an updated «strawmap"—a draft roadmap—on the website strawmap.org. The concept, called Lean Ethereum and first outlined in 2025, calls for replacing «nearly every key component of the protocol» over the course of three to four years—without forcing existing applications to migrate.

The central change concerns how the network verifies its own state. Instead of each node re-executing every transaction, Ethereum will transition to chain verification using compact cryptographic proofs based on recursive STARKs—a type of zero-knowledge proof that Buterin wants to establish as a core component of the protocol. Also under consideration are a simplified consensus mechanism with finalization in one or two rounds, multidimensional gas pricing, and a long-term transition from the EVM to an instruction set similar to RISC-V.

Quantum security has become a separate priority. Buterin noted that all cryptography vulnerable to quantum attacks will be replaced with quantum-resistant alternatives, and work on the corresponding «blobs» has already been underway for several months. He called privacy a «first-class goal» rather than a secondary feature—it must be built into the mempool, state tree, and other key parts of the system.

The most radical part of the plan concerns data storage. By 2030, Buterin envisions a network that holds about 2 TB of the current flexible «dynamic» state and 100 TB of a new, more scalable but more limited type of storage. The latter is well-suited for tokens, NFTs, and most DeFi protocols, but less suitable for complex contracts such as decentralized exchanges. Migrating an ERC-20 token to the new storage will not be mandatory, but it could reduce fees by more than tenfold.

The changes will take place gradually. According to Buterin, the upcoming Hegotá fork will be the last one before the start of the Lean Ethereum era. The Glamsterdam update is expected to significantly increase the gas limit, and further growth in throughput and speed will be spread out over approximately five years.

The announcement came amid a challenging period for the Ethereum Foundation itself: the organization recently downsized its staff and tightened its budget. Previous major Ethereum updates have been delayed multiple times prior to implementation, so the ambition of the new roadmap is already raising questions about the realism of the timeline.