Key Highlights
- Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum must become strong enough to stay secure and usable even if developers stop making major upgrades.
- He says Ethereum needs to pass a “walkaway test,” meaning it should work like a basic tool that doesn’t fail if active development slows.
- Buterin highlighted quantum resistance, ZK-EVMs, and PeerDAS as critical upgrades for Ethereum’s long-term security and scalability.
Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin says the blockchain must eventually reach a point where it can continue operating securely even if developers stop making major changes.
In a post shared on X, Buterin argued that Ethereum’s long-term value should not depend on features that are still unfinished or upgrades that have yet to be implemented.
“We must get to a place where Ethereum’s value proposition does not strictly depend on any features that are not in the protocol already,” he wrote.
He described this idea as Ethereum needing to pass a “walkaway test.” According to Buterin, the network should function more like a basic tool than a service — something that remains usable once built, rather than something that breaks down if ongoing maintenance stops.
“It must support applications that are more like tools — the hammer that once you buy, it’s yours — than like services that lose all functionality once the vendor loses interest,” he said.
Long-term security and scalability goals
To reach that stage, Buterin outlined several technical goals Ethereum must complete. One of the most important is full resistance to quantum computing threats, which could one day break today’s cryptographic security.
“Being able to say ‘Ethereum’s protocol, as it stands today, is cryptographically safe for a hundred years’ is something we should strive to get to as soon as possible,” he said.
Scalability is another central focus. Buterin pointed to the importance of building an architecture capable of supporting thousands of transactions per second.
This involves using Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (ZK-EVMs) and Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) to make transaction verification and data handling more efficient while keeping the network decentralized.
Ethereum’s shift is already beginning
At the start of January, Buterin said Ethereum is already beginning to enter a new stage of development, citing the launch of PeerDAS on mainnet and the emergence of production-level ZK-EVMs.
He said the shift is not simply about making Ethereum faster, but about changing how the network handles data and validates blocks, potentially reshaping long-standing technical limits.
Other priorities include building a long-lasting state architecture so Ethereum can expand without overwhelming storage and hardware requirements.
Ethereum also needs to move toward full account abstraction rather than relying on a single signature system, and finalizing a gas fee model that minimizes security risks.
Buterin also stressed the importance of a proof-of-stake system and block-building process that can resist centralization and censorship pressures over time.
Although Ethereum’s roadmap still includes many upgrades, Buterin said the next few years should focus on completing these foundational elements. Once they are in place, he believes most future changes could be limited to smaller parameter adjustments and software optimizations rather than major protocol redesigns.
Stablecoin concerns remain unresolved
Buterin’s comments follow his recent concerns about decentralized stablecoins. A few days ago, he said the industry still has not solved the core challenges behind building stablecoins that can remain resilient over the long term.
He gave some examples of the structural problems that have been left unsolved, including dependence on the US dollar, the possibility of oracle cheating, as well as competition with staking rewards. He noted that stablecoins, which are pegged only to the US dollar, make their holders dependent on the policies of one country.
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