The following is a guest position and an opinion from Rostyslav Bortman, founder of Ethereum Ukraine.
Even in wartime, innovation does not stop. In Ethkiv 2025, more than 100 pirates have proven that the DAPPs of confidentiality, in competition for subsidies and showing what is possible when the most difficult challenges in the world meet the web3 network.
But the real shock waves came from the founders themselves: Vitalik Buterin and Tomasz K. Stańczak, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, who both appeared as online speakers of the event, abandoned two bombs – 400 TPS on Ethereum L1 this year, and a near future where anyone can manage a full node on their smartphone.
So what is the next step for the protocol? When do 400 TPS arrive and what does “Ethereum on your phone” mean for developers and users? Here is what we learned at Ethkiv 2025.
Next-generation UX: knots on a phone
Vitalik Buterin’s opening speech at Ethkiv 2025 cuts directly to the basic roadmap of Ethereum. The biggest revelation:
“Very soon, you can shoot a knot on your smartphones and even smart watches.”
According to Buterin, instead of counting on servers with storage teraoctes, users will soon be able to run a complete Ethereum node “without heavy resources”. This first case of its kind will be possible thanks to the zero-connoissance Ethereum virtual machines (ZKEVM) that the Ethereum Foundation is currently implementing.
Zkevms makes nodes considerably lighter, reducing storage through transactions verification without revealing and importing any information about them.
On Ethereum L2, ZKEVMs have already reduced transaction costs to 90% and feast on their purpose in less than three seconds. Buterin said that the next step is to make these improvements to Mainnet Ethereum, making blockchain interactions as fast and affordable as traditional web applications.
400 TPS with purpose at 3 slot by 2026
In Ethkiv 2025, Tomasz K. Stańczak, co-executive co-executive of the Ethereum Foundation, explained exactly what is next to the backbone of Ethereum: real performance gains on the main maintenance itself.
He revealed that at the end of 2026, Ethereum will increase to 3 slot (3sf), reducing the confirmation time of the average transaction from 15 minutes to only 36 seconds. For users, this will bring the experience of traditional instantaneous digital payments while maintaining all the advantages of decentralization.
Stańczak set the short -term milestones:
Ethereum L1 will reach 400 transactions per second (TPS) by the end of 2025.
Block gas limits will reach 100 million this year, with a leap to 60 million per block in a month or two (on the date of publication – “Ed.).
For the context: the scale of Ethereum L1 is essential because it anchors the entire ecosystem, providing the resistance layer to security, regulation and resistance to censorship. With a faster main flow, users obtain greater insurance than their transactions are finalized on a decentralized global network – not a bottleneck by L2 operators.
As Vitalik Buterin summed up:
“The objective is to make Ethereum more private, more resistant to censorship and at the same time, so easy that even people of technology feel safe using every day.”
What really feeds the value and mass adoption of Ethereum?
For me and all Ethereum subscribers, some big questions have always remained: what underlies the value of Ethereum, and what could trigger mass adoption?
When I pressed Vitalik Buterin and Tomasz Stańczak to obtain answers to Ethkiv 2025, they all focused on different but connected drivers.
Tomasz underlined three non-negotiable: confidentiality, data protection and transparency. According to him, this is precisely what business customers and regular users are now expecting any blockchain platform.
“Ethereum is a global network and increased adoption directly increases the value of the whole ecosystem,” he said.
Plus Ethereum is used for a real public service – by companies and by individuals – plus demand, and ultimately, value accumulates.
Vitalik, on the other hand, has supervised the adoption issue concerning financial utility. His thesis: mass adoption occurs when Ethereum becomes the rails for active active world, in particular tokenized shares and obligations.
“They are the gateway to mass adoption and the bridge between traditional finance and the web3,” he said.
With heavy goods vehicles like BlackRock, Deutsche Bank and Coinbase by actively pulling Ethereum for the tokenization of assets, we already see the blurred lines between the traditional market of $ 117 billions and the web infrastructure.
In short: the real value of Ethereum is not only speculative, but it is under construction at the moment at the intersection of security, privacy and practical financial applications. This is where mass adoption begins to seem inevitable.
Why Ethkiv 2025 is important for Ukraine and beyond
Ethkiv 2025 stood out from its access to global opinion leaders. Despite all the risks linked to war, the developers here heard first -hand information from the most influential manufacturers of Ethereum.
As Stéains himself described it:
“Company, challenge, explorations, AI, research, daily problems, work with people – we must understand management and give comments. A lot.”
Its daily routine – The hours spent answering the developers’ questions – determine how Ethereum’s power lies in its inhabitants, not only its protocol.
Above all, Ethkiv 2025 has never just been another technological event on the calendar. Keeping in the context of an in progress war, it has become living proof of something greater: even in the darkest moments, the technological community of Ukraine chooses to build, learn and connect with the world ecosystem.
Throughout the hackathon, the context of war was impossible to ignore, but it was not a shadow but a driving force. The performances of Moisei Bondarenko, the violinist soldier whose music resonates in the liberated Ukrainian cities, reminded everyone that innovation and humanity should go hand in hand. The same goes for the tactical medicine session led by the combat of combat Artem Rudy, bringing practical skills and a feeling of resilience shared in the room.
This is what distinguishes Ethkiv 2025: it was a gathering of mind and heart, a testimony of the persistence of the community, the curiosity and the shared values – even in wartime. The world has looked not only for technology, but for the spirit of resilience and solidarity that Ukrainian manufacturers brought on stage.
