Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the blockchain network must choose between pursuing speculative trends or fulfilling its initial promise as a neutral “world computer.”
In two separate in-depth posts on social media platform X, Buterin discussed 2025 as a year of significant technical progress.
However, he warned of the network’s growing reliance on what he called the “next meta,” a cycle defined by political memecoins, token dollars, and efforts to artificially boost network use for economic signaling purposes.
Instead, Buterin argued that Ethereum has reached a pivotal moment where it has finally resolved the industry’s oldest technical paradox: the scalability trilemma.
Citing major upgrades in 2025, including the mainnet activation of PeerDAS and the maturation of zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (ZK-EVM), he said the network had overcome the tradeoffs. These tradeoffs previously forced blockchains to choose between decentralization, security, and speed.
The result, according to Buterin, is a shift that brings Ethereum closer to becoming a new type of shared computing platform rather than just another blockchain.
However, he stressed that these technical advances do not constitute the final objective but rather the basis of a “rebellion” against the centralized and subscription Internet.
The end of the trilemma
For over a decade, blockchain developers have operated under the assumption of the “scalability trilemma.” This theory posits that a decentralized network can only achieve two of three properties: decentralization, security, and scalability.
In his message, Buterin asserted that those days were indeed over, not only in theoretical research papers, but also in the “operational code.”
To explain the magnitude of this change, Buterin drew a historical comparison between two main types of peer-to-peer networks that defined the Internet era.
He pointed to BitTorrent, launched in 2000, which offered enormous total bandwidth and high decentralization, but lacked consensus.
Conversely, Bitcoin, launched in 2009, introduced highly decentralized consensus but suffered from low bandwidth because the network was not truly distributed; instead, the work was simply replicated on each node.
Buterin posits that the Ethereum of 2025, equipped with PeerDAS and the emerging ZK-EVM technology, merges these two distinct lineages. The combination creates a network that simultaneously supports decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth.
He noted that half of the solution, Data Availability Sampling (DAS), is already available on mainnet today. In contrast, the other half, the ZK-EVMs, have reached production-grade performance and only safety checks remain.
Considering this, he said:
“Ethereum with PeerDAS (2025) and ZK-EVM (expect small parts of the network to use it in 2026) we get: decentralized, consensus and high bandwidth. The trilemma has been solved.”
This integration marks the culmination of a “10-year journey,” referring to research that dates back to initial commitments on data availability and erasure coding.
This advancement means that the network can now process more activity, reduce bottlenecks, and make it easier for individuals to run the software that keeps Ethereum running, all without sacrificing its decentralized design.
A rebellion against centralization
Even though technical achievements form the backbone of Buterin’s update, his message placed a strong emphasis on the ideological purpose of these upgrades.
He presented the enhanced Ethereum not as a tool for financial speculation, but as a direct counter to the modern digital economy.
Buterin explicitly contrasted Ethereum’s potential with the rise of subscription-based digital services that lock users into centralized platforms.
He described the current internet landscape as one where everyday tools have been replaced by services that rely on third-party intermediaries, leaving users vulnerable if those providers go offline or are compromised.
He wrote:
“Ethereum is the rebellion against this.”
At the heart of this vision is the concept of “leakage testing”, a fundamental benchmark introduced by Buterin to measure the true utility of the network. The test asks whether an application or system can continue to function, regardless of who maintains it.
According to Buterin, applications built on Ethereum should operate without fraud, censorship, or third-party control, even if their original developers disappear completely.
He argued that for Ethereum to succeed, it must meet two requirements simultaneously: global usability and true decentralization. He cautioned that this challenge applies not only to the blockchain itself, including the software used to run the nodes, but also to the applications built on top of it.
He noted that many current applications still rely on centralized services despite using decentralized protocols, a vulnerability he hopes the new infrastructure will help eliminate.
The roadmap to 2030
Looking ahead, Buterin presented a specific multi-year roadmap that details how these technical innovations will be deployed to users and developers.
He described the current state of ZK-EVMs as being in the “alpha stage,” characterized by production-grade performance, with the rest of the work focused on security.
Over the next four years, Buterin hopes to see the full extent of this vision materialized through a series of planned improvements:
In 2026, the grid is expected to implement significant gas limit increases that are not dependent on ZK-EVMs. These increases will be facilitated by technical adjustments called BAL and ePBS.
Additionally, 2026 will provide users with the first opportunities to run ZK-EVM nodes, marking a significant milestone in the adoption of the technology.
Between 2026 and 2028, the roadmap provides for gas repricing and changes in the state structure of the network.
This period will also see the execution payload move to “blobs”, a data storage solution designed to increase efficiency, as well as other adjustments intended to make higher gas limits safe for the network.
By 2027-2030, Buterin predicts further significant increases in gas limits as ZK-EVMs become the primary method of validating blocks on the network.
This transition represents a fundamental shift in how Ethereum validates transactions, moving away from the replication model of the past toward a verified, zero-knowledge proof system that maximizes efficiency.
Buterin’s post clarifies that these are not “minor improvements,” but rather a shift to a “fundamentally new and more powerful type of decentralized network.”
He emphasized that powerful tools now exist to advance this effort, positioning Ethereum as sustainable infrastructure for finance, identity, governance, and other foundational internet services.
The “Holy Grail”
Beyond the immediate roadmap regarding scaling and gas limits, Buterin highlighted a long-term aspiration regarding how transactions are assembled on the network.
He described “distributed block building” as an “ideal long-term holy grail” for the ecosystem.
The goal is to achieve a future in which an entire block of transactions “will never be made up in one place.” While acknowledging that this level of decentralization may not be strictly necessary for a long time, Buterin argued that it is worth the effort to ensure that the network has the necessary capabilities.
In the meantime, the goal is to distribute significant authority in block construction as widely as possible.
Buterin suggested that this could be achieved either through “in-protocol” methods, such as extending the FOCIL mechanism to serve as a primary channel for transactions, or through “off-protocol” methods involving distributed constructor markets.
The importance of this change lies in its risk reduction benefits. By distributing the block creation process, the network reduces the risk of centralized interference with the inclusion of real-time transactions.
Additionally, Buterin noted that such a system creates a “better environment for geographic fairness,” ensuring that network access remains fair regardless of the user’s physical location.
Ultimately, Buterin’s New Year’s speech served as both a report on technical progress and a philosophical corrective. By asserting that the technical means to resolve the trilemma now exist, he has removed the technical excuses that once justified centralization.
The question that remains, as he said, is whether the community will use this power to build a “global computer” that passes the exit test, or whether it will continue to look for economic signals of the next market cycle.
