Ethereum’s New Roadmap

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin presented the network’s new roadmap at the Developer Conference held in Japan today, outlining its short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

Key Topics

Scalability, cross-layer compatibility, privacy, and security were the prominent topics in Buterin’s speech.

Short-Term Goals

Buterin stated that the short-term focus will be on increasing gas limits on the Ethereum mainnet (L1). Tools such as block-level access lists, ZK-EVMs, gas price restructuring, and slot optimization will be used, aiming to enhance scalability while preserving the network’s decentralization.

Medium-Term Goals

The medium-term objective is to enable trustless asset transfers between Layer-2 (L2) networks and enhance transaction finality. This includes implementing “Stage 2 Rollup” solutions, proof-of-conduct combinations, and optimizations for data retrieval from L1. Improvements like shorter slot times, fast finality protocols, and erasure coding are planned to enhance user experience and security.

Privacy Considerations

Buterin emphasized that privacy remains a priority for both short- and medium-term plans. Techniques like zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, anonymous pools, encrypted voting, and scrambling network solutions will protect users’ on-chain payments, voting, DeFi transactions, and account changes. Moreover, he mentioned secure execution environments, secret query techniques, and the ability to obscure fraudulent requests and data access patterns.

Long-Term Vision

Buterin’s long-term vision advocates for a minimalist, secure, and simple Ethereum. This plan includes measures against quantum computer risks, securing the protocol through mathematical verification, and the shift towards ideal cryptographic solutions.

He noted that these strategic steps aim to transform Ethereum into a more scalable, user-friendly, and secure infrastructure. Strengthening L2 networks will allow more users to utilize Ethereum with reduced trust assumptions. Ultimately, the goal is for Ethereum to serve as a reliable foundational infrastructure for global financial and technological systems.

> This is not investment advice.