- Lean Ethereum will adopt recursive STARKs, quantum-safe cryptography, and faster consensus over the next three to four years.
- The roadmap prioritizes privacy, formal verification, and scalable state models to improve Ethereum’s security and efficiency.
- Buterin said future upgrades could cut costs for tokens, NFTs, and DeFi while boosting Ethereum’s scalability.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a multi-year development plan called “Lean Ethereum,” describing it as the network’s third major evolution after the Merge. Following meetings with Ethereum researchers in Berlin and client teams in Svalbard, Buterin said the roadmap will gradually replace core protocol components over the next three to four years.
Lean Ethereum Reshapes Core Protocol
According to Vitalik Buterin, Lean Ethereum will introduce recursive STARKs as a native verification system instead of direct transaction re-execution. He also said the network will replace remaining quantum-vulnerable cryptography with quantum-safe alternatives.
Additionally, planned consensus changes aim to deliver faster finality with a simpler design. The roadmap also includes multidimensional gas and updates to client architecture. However, Buterin said developers intend to minimize disruption for existing applications throughout the transition.
He added that H-star, also known as Hegota, will likely become Ethereum’s final major upgrade before Lean-focused releases begin.
Privacy and State Changes Gain Priority
Buterin said privacy now stands as a primary protocol objective rather than an optional feature. As a result, developers are evaluating privacy requirements across transaction processing and future protocol designs.
He also highlighted formal verification as a central security goal. According to Buterin, ongoing work on evm-asm supports that effort by providing a canonical proof system for the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Another major proposal involves expanding Ethereum’s state model. Instead of relying only on today’s dynamic state, developers are exploring new scalable state types. According to Buterin, Ethereum could support about 2 terabytes of dynamic state and 100 terabytes of scalable state by 2030.
He said the new design could reduce transaction costs for ERC-20 tokens, NFTs, and many decentralized finance applications by more than tenfold.
Virtual Machines and Scaling
Buterin also said Ethereum will eventually require another virtual machine alongside the EVM. Current candidates include RISC-V and leanISA. He explained that those architectures could improve scalability while supporting programmable privacy.
Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum will continue increasing gas limits, expanding blob capacity, and reducing slot times over the coming years. He added that the upcoming Glasterdam upgrade is expected to deliver a significant increase in the network’s gas limit.
