The Ethereum Foundation has unveiled a long-term technological roadmap for the network's development, extending through 2029. The new concept, named Lean Ethereum, involves a profound revision of the protocol architecture — comparable in scale to the transition to Proof-of-Stake. This is not about incremental improvements, but a full-scale transformation of the decentralized system, the implementation of which will take three to four years.
Ethereum researchers held a strategic meeting in Berlin, where they defined the long-term development trajectory. The results were summarized by co-founder Vitalik Buterin, and the document itself has already been dubbed a "strawmap" by the community. The initiative aims to accelerate the blockchain, reduce fees, enhance anonymity, and protect against quantum threats. To achieve this, it plans to replace or significantly modify virtually all key elements of the system.
The Five "Guiding Stars" of Lean Ethereum
The roadmap outlines five key goals around which the entire restructuring is centered:
- Accelerating the Base Layer. The slot creation time is planned to be reduced from the current 12 seconds to 8, then to 6, 4, and possibly to 2 seconds.
- Increasing L1 Throughput. The target is approximately 10,000 TPS through the implementation of zkEVM and real-time proof generation.
- Scaling L2. The benchmark is the "teragas" level, meaning roughly 10 million TPS. This leap is expected to be enabled by a new approach to data availability.
- Implementing Post-Quantum Protection. Familiar cryptographic tasks will be replaced with hash-based solutions resistant to attacks from quantum computers.
- Privacy. Developers intend to implement hidden ETH transfers, allowing users to send funds without revealing details on the public blockchain.
A key element of the restructuring will be the new consensus mechanism Minimmit. It is expected to accelerate finalization time by 120 times — from 16 minutes to 8 seconds.
Glamsterdam, Hegota, and the New Architecture
The next Ethereum upgrades — Glamsterdam (expected in the second half of 2026) and Hegota. The first includes the ePBS mechanism, which permanently separates the tasks of block building and attestation, as well as Block-Level Access Lists. The goal is to increase the gas limit, reduce costs, and combat MEV. The Hegota upgrade, according to Buterin, will likely be the last "before the Lean era."
One of the most notable changes is the replacement of classic transaction verification with recursive STARK proofs. This system will become the network's basic computational component, eliminating the need for each node to directly re-execute operations. Confidentiality has been elevated to a top priority: privacy must be combined with post-quantum protection. The Ethereum Foundation plans to complete the transition to quantum-resistant algorithms by 2029, with the SPHINCS+ method proposed as an interim solution, capable of securing accounts for just $0.07.
The most radical part of the plan is the restructuring of state storage. By 2030, the network could have around 2 TB of old-type data and up to 100 TB of new-type data. The second option would be suitable for ERC-20, NFTs, and DeFi, but not for complex contracts. Moving a token to the new storage scheme via UTXO, according to Buterin's estimate, would reduce fees by more than ten times.
Community Reaction and Expert Perspective
The industry has generally received the plan positively. StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson praised the focus on recursive STARKs and quantum security but called the timeline too long. Former Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist suggested completing it within a year, pointing to AI tools as a potential accelerator. However, some ETH holders are skeptical: they are concerned about rising fees, validator motivation, and the lengthy implementation timeline.
My analysis: Lean Ethereum sets a clear and ambitious direction — to make the network faster, cheaper, and more resistant to quantum threats. However, the main risk lies in the timeline. If quantum computers emerge before 2029, Ethereum could become vulnerable. Furthermore, the plan's success will depend on whether developers can maintain decentralization amid a sharp increase in data storage requirements. For now, this is just a "strawmap" — a concept that must undergo a harsh reality check.