The Ethereum Foundation has unveiled an ambitious long-term plan for the network's technological development, spanning through 2029. The Lean Ethereum concept is not just another upgrade, but a deep architectural restructuring of the protocol, comparable in scale to the transition to Proof-of-Stake during The Merge. This document, known in the community as a "strawmap," was detailed by researcher Justin Drake and co-founder Vitalik Buterin following a series of strategic meetings in Berlin and Svalbard.
The Five "Guiding Stars"
Developers have identified five key goals around which the entire transformation will be built. First is accelerating the base layer: the slot creation time is planned to be reduced from the current 12 seconds to 2 seconds. Second is increasing L1 throughput to ~10,000 TPS through the implementation of zkEVM and real-time proof generation. Third is scaling L2 to the "teragas" level (approximately 10 million TPS) via a new approach to data availability. Fourth is implementing post-quantum security, replacing classical cryptographic tasks with hash-based solutions. Fifth is privacy: introducing hidden ETH transfers that do not reveal transaction details on the public blockchain.
Key Upgrades: Glamsterdam and Hegota
The next major updates will be Glamsterdam (expected in the second half of 2026) and Hegota. Glamsterdam will introduce the ePBS (Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) mechanism to combat MEV and increase the gas limit, as well as Block-Level Access Lists (BAL) to reduce costs. Hegota, according to Buterin, will be the last upgrade "before the Lean era" and will focus on optimizing data management and scalability. At the core of the entire restructuring lies the Minimmit consensus mechanism, which will accelerate finalization time by 120 times — from 16 minutes to 8 seconds.
Cryptography, Consensus, and New Architecture
One of the most radical changes will be replacing classical transaction verification with recursive STARK proofs. This will eliminate the need for each node to re-execute operations, making the system more efficient. Confidentiality has been elevated to a top priority, and it will be integrated with post-quantum security. The Ethereum Foundation plans to complete the transition to quantum-resistant algorithms by 2029, with the SPHINCS+ method proposed as an interim solution, which would secure accounts for just $0.07 without a hard fork.
The most controversial part of the plan is the restructuring of state storage. It proposes preserving the current dynamic state but adding new types of storage designed for much larger volumes (up to 100 TB by 2030). This would reduce fees for ERC-20 and NFT tokens by more than ten times when using the UTXO scheme. However, questions remain about incentives for nodes to store the growing volume of data and the smooth transition of legacy contracts.
Community Reaction: Ambitions vs. Reality
The crypto industry has generally received the plan positively. StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson praised the focus on STARK and quantum security but called the timeline too long. Former Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist suggested completing it within one year, pointing to AI tools as a possible accelerator. However, some ETH holders are skeptical: they point out that fees remain high and the asset's price has not shown significant growth. There is noticeable fatigue in the community regarding long-term plans that do not yet address current user problems.
My view as an analyst: Lean Ethereum is undoubtedly the most well-thought-out and ambitious network development plan since The Merge. It lays the foundation for a future where Ethereum can compete with the fastest blockchains and be resilient to quantum threats. However, the main risk is the gap between technical ambitions and user expectations. If the effect of lower fees and faster transactions is not felt until 2029, the community may lose patience. The key question is: will Ethereum manage to restructure before real quantum threats or faster competitors emerge? We will find out the answer in the next three to four years, fork by fork.