In September 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined a comprehensive roadmap for Ethereum’s future at the Japan Developer Conference, detailing short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals to enhance scalability, privacy, and security while preserving decentralization.
Layer 1 (L1) Scaling: Focus on increasing the Ethereum mainnet’s capacity by raising the gas limit to process more transactions per block without compromising decentralization. Tools like block-level access lists, ZK-EVMs, gas repricing, and slot optimization are expected to improve throughput and efficiency.
Privacy Enhancements: Implement privacy protections for on-chain transactions (“writes”) using zero-knowledge proofs, encrypted voting, and mixnet-based transaction relays. Privacy for “reads” (retrieving blockchain data) will leverage trusted execution environments, private information retrieval, and dummy queries to obscure user activity patterns.
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Pectra Upgrade: Expected in 2025, this upgrade combines Prague (execution layer) and Electra (consensus layer) to enhance scalability and introduce features like increased blob space (up to six units per block) for cheaper Layer 2 transactions.
Mid-Term Goals
Cross-Layer 2 (L2) Interoperability: Emphasize seamless asset transfers and communication between L2 solutions (e.g., rollups) with trustless bridges, faster settlements, and proof aggregation. Techniques like erasure coding and three-stage finalization (3SF) aim to reduce latency and enhance security.
Rollup Advancements: Strengthen Stage 2 rollups with better verification efficiency and standardized proof aggregation to reduce costs and improve scalability. L2s are already scaling Ethereum’s transaction capacity by 17x and reducing fees significantly.
User Experience: Standardize chain-specific addresses (e.g., ERC-3770) and cross-chain message passing to make Ethereum feel like a unified ecosystem rather than fragmented blockchains.
Long-Term Goals
Lean Ethereum Vision: Aim for a minimalist, secure, and simple Ethereum core that is quantum-resistant and formally verified. This includes adopting advanced cryptographic tools like hash-based signatures and ideal primitives for hashing and zero-knowledge proofs.
Quantum Resistance: Prepare for quantum computing threats by replacing elliptic curve cryptography with quantum-safe alternatives, ensuring long-term security.
Transition Ethereum from a crypto-focused platform to critical global infrastructure, supporting decentralized applications (dApps) across finance, governance, and communication. This includes fostering decentralized governance and preserving Ethereum’s experimental culture.
Buterin emphasized privacy as a cornerstone, addressing both transaction and data retrieval privacy to prevent surveillance and ensure user sovereignty. Tools like Railgun, Privacy Pool, and TEE-based RPC privacy are proposed for integration into wallets.
The roadmap reinforces Ethereum’s commitment to energy efficiency, with the proof-of-stake (PoS) transition (completed in 2022) and ongoing optimizations targeting completion by mid-2025 to reduce the network’s carbon footprint.
EVM 2.0 and Governance: The introduction of EVM 2.0 will enhance execution efficiency and developer tools, while on-chain governance mechanisms will empower token holders to participate in protocol decisions.
Ethereum’s roadmap builds on milestones like the Merge (2022), which shifted to PoS, and prior upgrades like Altair (2021) and EIP-4844 (blobs). The roadmap aligns with six core components: Merge, Surge, Scourge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge, with ongoing refinements.
Posts on X reflect enthusiasm for Ethereum’s roadmap, with users like RyanSAdams calling it “the most ambitious and powerful roadmap in crypto” and expressing bullishness on ETH. The roadmap’s focus on scalability (e.g., targeting 100,000 TPS via L2s), privacy, and decentralization aims to maintain Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi and dApps, which currently secure over $230 billion across its networks.