What’s on the Ethereum Roadmap: Glamsterdam, Hegota and Beyond
Ethereum is under continuous development, regularly introducing major upgrades through coordinated protocol changes called hard forks, rather than via a single "Ethereum 2.0" event. Since the September 2022 Merge, priorities have included scaling, reducing transaction costs, improving wallets, and making node operation easier. The network aims for about two significant upgrades per year, depending on research and testing readiness. Ethereum’s scaling strategy centers on layer-2 networks, which process transactions off-chain and finalize results on Ethereum for security. Many layer-2 solutions use rollups, bundling transactions to increase throughput and reduce costs. Development efforts increasingly focus on optimizing support for rollups. Vitalik Buterin outlined six roadmap phases: the Merge, the Surge, the Scourge, the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge—broad, overlapping goals rather than isolated upgrades. Upgrade specifics and names may evolve during development. Progress is gradual and iterative, with testing on devnets and testnets before mainnet deployment, and the roadmap adapts as research advances and milestones are reached.
