Hassan Maishera
Ethereum's co-founder says the multi-year Lean Ethereum initiative will replace nearly every major component of the blockchain while improving scalability, privacy, quantum security, and transaction efficiency.
TL;DR
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Vitalik Buterin says Lean Ethereum will be the blockchain's third major evolution after the Merge.
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The roadmap spans the next three to four years and will gradually replace most of Ethereum's core infrastructure.
Vitalik Buterin Outlines Ethereum's Next Major Evolution
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared new details about the network's long-term "Lean Ethereum" roadmap, describing it as a sweeping transformation that will fundamentally rebuild how the blockchain operates over the coming years.
In a post on X, Buterin emphasized that Lean Ethereum is not a single protocol upgrade but a series of interconnected improvements expected to roll out over the next three to four years.
Two weeks ago, Ethereum researchers met in Berlin to continue charting the protocol's long-term trajectory, following along discussions with client teams in Svalbard in April.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 4, 2026
The updated strawmap is at https://t.co/HZEerH1xxI, and I attached a picture of it to this post.
My… pic.twitter.com/KPGayHSySf
He described the initiative as Ethereum's "third major iteration," placing it alongside the landmark Merge upgrade and stating that nearly every major part of the protocol will eventually be replaced.
The updated roadmap follows discussions among Ethereum researchers in Berlin in late June and builds on the draft roadmap published by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, which outlines major protocol upgrades through 2029.
According to Buterin, the roadmap touches almost every layer of Ethereum's architecture.
The planned upgrades include improvements to transaction validation, faster transaction finality, quantum-resistant cryptography, and a complete redesign of how Ethereum stores blockchain data.
Despite the scale of the proposed changes, Buterin said developers intend to maintain compatibility with existing decentralized applications, pointing to the successful transition during the Merge as evidence that Ethereum can undergo major upgrades without disrupting the ecosystem.
He also suggested that Hegota, currently expected to be Ethereum's second protocol upgrade of 2026, will likely be the final major upgrade before Lean Ethereum becomes the network's primary development focus.
New Storage System Could Slash Transaction Costs
One of the most significant changes in the roadmap involves Ethereum's data storage architecture.
Buterin described the storage redesign as potentially the most disruptive element of the entire initiative.
Rather than relying solely on Ethereum's current state storage model, the proposal introduces a second, lower-cost storage layer designed for simpler applications while retaining the existing architecture for more complex smart contracts.
Under the proposed system, tokens, NFTs, and many decentralized finance (DeFi) applications could migrate to the cheaper storage tier, while advanced protocols such as decentralized exchanges would continue using the current model.
According to Buterin, developers would not be forced to migrate, but applications that do could reduce transaction costs by more than tenfold.
He also envisioned a future where the new storage layer manages significantly more blockchain data than the legacy system, dramatically improving Ethereum's long-term scalability.
Another major focus of the roadmap is preparing Ethereum for the potential threat posed by future quantum computers.
Buterin said quantum security has become one of the project's highest priorities, with developers working to replace every cryptographic component that could eventually become vulnerable to quantum attacks.
One immediate area of focus is creating quantum-safe protection for blobs, Ethereum's temporary data storage mechanism used extensively by Layer 2 scaling networks to reduce transaction costs.
Development on these protections has already been underway for several months, according to Buterin.
Privacy Moves to the Core of Ethereum's Development
Privacy is also receiving significantly greater attention in the updated roadmap. Buterin said Ethereum is moving away from treating privacy as an optional feature, instead making it a foundational design principle for future protocol upgrades.
The long-term vision includes native private ETH transfers and privacy-preserving features integrated directly into Ethereum's base layer rather than relying on external applications or third-party protocols.
The renewed focus builds on previous initiatives championed by Buterin, including the Ethereum Foundation's work on privacy-focused wallet infrastructure.
Ethereum May Eventually Replace the EVM
Buterin also revisited the long-term proposal to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the execution environment that powers every smart contract on the network.
He identified RISC-V and leanISA as the leading candidates for Ethereum's future execution engine, although he acknowledged that such a transition remains years away.
Under the proposed approach, Ethereum would eventually operate entirely on the new architecture while retaining the EVM as a compatibility layer, allowing existing decentralized applications to continue functioning without modification.
A more efficient execution engine would significantly reduce the computational cost of generating cryptographic proofs while making it easier to build privacy-focused applications directly on Ethereum.
The proposal remains a subject of debate within the Ethereum ecosystem, with some researchers previously advocating WebAssembly as an alternative execution environment.
Buterin said Ethereum's transaction capacity is expected to increase steadily over the next five years.
Among the planned improvements is a significant gas limit increase expected during the Glamsterdam upgrade, allowing more transactions to be processed within each block.
Although Glamsterdam has yet to launch, Hegota is currently expected to follow as Ethereum's next major upgrade before the network fully shifts toward the Lean Ethereum roadmap.
Lean Ethereum Marks the Network's Long-Term Vision
The roadmap arrives shortly after the Ethereum Foundation completed an organizational restructuring that reduced its workforce by approximately 20%.
Closing his post, Buterin reiterated the principles guiding Ethereum's future, describing the network as "CROPS"—a reference to censorship resistance, open source development, privacy, and security.
If executed successfully, Lean Ethereum would represent the most comprehensive redesign in the blockchain's history, positioning the network for greater scalability, stronger security against emerging threats, lower transaction costs, and improved privacy while preserving compatibility with today's decentralized applications.
