Ethereum’s next chapter could change what people mean when they call it a blockchain.
In remarks to the 12th Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai on September 23, Vitalik Buterin outlined a future in which Ethereum becomes part of a broader computing network. His September 27 essay develops that vision into what he calls a “cryptographic world computer”: a system combining Ethereum’s ledger with advanced verification, privacy tools and decentralized computing beyond the chain itself.
In the essay, he identifies Hegotá, planned for 2027, as potentially Ethereum’s last “normal” upgrade. After that, he expects a deeper transformation involving new proof systems, more efficient consensus and quantum-safe cryptography. These are changes he sees ahead, with substantial development still required.
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Checking the Work Without Repeating It
A key building block is verifiable computation: letting another system perform a calculation, then checking a mathematical proof that it was done correctly.
Ethereum’s explanation of zero-knowledge proofs describes how this already supports scaling. Networks can process transactions outside Ethereum and submit proofs for verification, reducing the work required on the base chain.
Think of a team completing a large assignment and submitting a checkable certificate of correctness. The verifier can assess the result without repeating the entire assignment.
Related technology can also protect sensitive information. Someone could prove they meet an identity requirement without handing over every detail in the underlying document. These are distinct uses of cryptography: verifying work and limiting what must be disclosed.
A Bigger Role for the Network Around Ethereum
Buterin’s vision extends beyond upgrading the chain. He sees decentralized infrastructure between users and Ethereum taking on more computation and data handling.
Developers would have stronger incentives to divide applications into tasks that can run alongside one another, rather than forcing everything through one sequential operation.
His argument is that decentralization could sometimes improve performance as well as resilience. He also draws a boundary: Ethereum itself will not match server latency, although infrastructure around it could.
Quantum Safety Is Part of the Design
This direction builds on the Lean Ethereum vision outlined by researcher Justin Drake in July 2025.
Drake proposed changes across three areas: how Ethereum reaches agreement, how it makes data available and how it executes programs. Advanced cryptography connects all three, with hash-based techniques intended to support both efficient verification and resistance to future quantum attacks.
The ambitions are substantial. His proposal described long-term targets equivalent to roughly 10,000 transactions per second on the base layer and 10 million across layer-two systems. Those are research ambitions, not current throughput figures or delivery guarantees. Drake explicitly presented the vision as his perspective, with room for disagreement across the ecosystem.
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What Still Has to Be Built
The Lean Consensus research tracker shows the work behind that ambition: post-quantum signatures, signature aggregation, networking improvements and formal verification—mathematical checks that implementations have the properties their designers claim.
Another research goal is reducing transaction finality from roughly 15 minutes to seconds. Finality is the point at which the network treats a transaction as settled, making it different from simply seeing a transaction included in a block.
These workstreams involve prototypes, test networks and coordination between multiple client teams. Their existence demonstrates active development; it does not make the complete design a finished product.
There are practical costs, too. Generating cryptographic proofs can require expensive hardware, and checking them still consumes resources. Better verification does not make computation free.
For users, the useful test will be what reaches their wallets and applications: affordable activity, dependable settlement and privacy they can actually use. A bigger technical vision becomes meaningful when those improvements become ordinary.
Reporting by Lidia Yadlos
