Vitalik: Ethereum to Enter 'Lean Ethereum' Phase; Core Protocol May Undergo Major Overhaul in 3–4 Years

Huo Xing Cai Jing reports that on July 5, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a post stating that Ethereum researchers recently held a meeting in Berlin to build upon discussions from April in Svalbard with client teams, updating the long-term protocol roadmap. Buterin noted that “Lean Ethereum” is not a single upgrade, but a series of protocol evolutions to be implemented gradually over the next three to four years, with an impact comparable to “The Merge” as the second major iteration, while the current phase may constitute the third major evolution. He highlighted that future core changes to Ethereum may include: replacing direct execution verification with recursive STARK verification, integrating post-quantum cryptography, decoupling consensus into separate availability and finality layers, and adopting a multidimensional gas model alongside state structure reengineering. At the state level, Ethereum may develop a “two-layer state structure” around 2030, comprising approximately 2 TB of traditional dynamic state and about 100 TB of new scalable state to support diverse application scalability needs. Buterin emphasized that privacy capabilities will no longer be an add-on feature but a core design objective of the protocol, with increased reliance on formal verification to enhance security and a transition of the EVM toward higher-level abstractions in the future, while the underlying layer may gradually shift to RISC-V or leanISA architectures. Additionally, he mentioned that key parameters such as gas limits, blob capacity, and block times will be adjusted multiple times over the coming years, with Ethereum continuing to scale through client optimizations and protocol upgrades. Buterin concluded that Ethereum is entering a phase of continuous reengineering and expansion, aiming to upgrade its underlying system without disrupting existing application ecosystems.