Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum (ETH)announced new improvements to address persistent decentralized network challenges. This announcement comes as the price of Ethereum has increased by more than 8% since the start of the year, signaling a strong rebound from previous downtrends.
Ethereum founder outlines solutions to network problems
Buterin returned with solutions to long-standing network issues as ETH rebounds, pushing its price above $3,220. The founder of Ethereum disclosed that zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machines (zkEVMs) have reached an alpha stage, delivering product-grade performance, while final security audits are still underway. At the same time, Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) is already available on mainnet, providing a critical piece of Ethereum’s next-generation infrastructure.
According to Buterin, these upgrades aren’t just minor improvements. They are fundamentally transforming Ethereum into a more powerful and resilient system. decentralized network. He compared Ethereum’s evolution to earlier peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent and Bitcoin. Even though BitTorrent offered massive bandwidth and decentralization, it lacked consensus. Conversely, Bitcoin has ensured decentralization and consensus but at the expense of bandwidth.
With the introduction of PeerDAS and zkEVMButerin says ETH has officially achieved full decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth. He describes this stage as solving the blockchain “trilemma” with operational and functional code. He also highlighted that these developments represent a decades-long effort, dating back to early engagements on data availability sampling and the launch of zkEVM development around 2020.
Looking ahead, the Ethereum founder expects the full vision of the network to unfold over the next four years. He revealed that in 2026, gas limits will increase through Block Level Access Lists (BAL) and Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), while zkEVM nodes will start operating on segments of the network. Between 2026 and 2028, says Buterin, Ethereum will adapt gas priceRestructure state and embed execution payloads into blobs to safely scale to higher limits.
Finally, by 2027-2030, zkEVMs are expected to become the primary block validation method, enabling further large-scale gas limit increases. Buterin suggests that these upcoming advances will solve the long-standing problem of decentralized networks, where only two of the three key properties, decentralization, security and speed, can coexist. With its new upgrades, ETH now has all three.
Buterin presents plans for distributed block construction
In his message, Buterin revealed other network upgrades focused on distributed block construction. He envisions a long-term goal in which no complete block will ever be assembled in one place. Although this is not an immediate need, the founder believes it is important to start developing this capability to prepare for the future of the blockchain network.
In the meantime, he stressed that authority over block construction should remain as widely distributed as possible. This can be done in two ways: either within the protocol itself by expanding Fork Choice Forced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) to handle transactions, or externally through distributed builder markets. According to Buterin, these initiatives aim to reduce the risk of centralized interference in the inclusion of transactions. At the same time, they promote greater geographic fairness within the Ethereum network.
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