Ethereum 'Reinventing Itself' With Biggest Overhaul Since the Merge: Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin outlined a major multi-year overhaul of Ethereum, calling “Lean Ethereum” its third big era after the Merge. The plan would replace most core components over three to four years without forcing apps to migrate. Key changes include using recursive STARKs so nodes verify compact cryptographic proofs instead of re-executing every transaction, simplifying consensus toward one- or two-round finality, adding multidimensional gas pricing, and possibly moving beyond the EVM to an instruction set like RISC-V. Security and privacy are central: quantum-vulnerable crypto would be replaced with quantum-safe alternatives, privacy would be built into the mempool and state tree, and formal verification would underpin the system. Storage is also being redesigned, with a 2030 vision for a much larger, more scalable but more restrictive state model aimed at tokens, NFTs, and much of DeFi. Near term, Ethereum expects a larger gas limit and continued capacity gains, with the Hegotá fork likely the last before this new phase.
