Vitalik Buterin shared a series of thoughts outlining his vision of where Ethereum is headed.
In his words, networks no longer face structural limitations. Combine extreme scalability and decentralizationAs long as the physical, economic and social limitations imposed by the real world are respected.
“Increasing bandwidth is safer than reducing latency,” Vitalik wrote in X magazine on January 8th.
As he explained, the system, called Peer-to-Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), was implemented with Fusaka last December and is based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proof) These will allow Ethereum to scale “thousands of times” compared to its current state.
Scale without breaking decentralization
In Vitalik’s words, “There are no laws of physics that prevent the combination of extreme scale and decentralization.”
Vitalik revealed that this statement is supported by previous and before-and-after analysis of data fragmentation. Sharding (The network is fragmented into coordinated parts).
In this framework, he emphasized that the central question is no longer whether Ethereum can scale; How to do it without compromising openness.
According to Vitalik, limitations arise when trying to reduce latency too much, or the time it takes for the network to react. This is where the inevitable limitations for Ethereum’s co-founders come into play.
- speed of light.
- The need for nodes to reside in rural areas or outside data centers.
- Resisting censorship and protecting the anonymity of those verifying the network.
On the other hand, we also introduced economic arguments. He noted that if operating a validator node is significantly more profitable in a particular city (for example, if operating outside of New York results in 10% less revenue), over time, validation will tend to concentrate there.
For Vitalik, Ethereum needs to pass what he calls the “abandonment test.” In other words, we cannot rely on continuous social readjustment to maintain decentralization.
Still, he insisted it was possible to moderately reduce delays without making major concessions. He cited improvements in peer-to-peer networking and message propagation, as well as designs with fewer nodes per verification interval.
The Russian-Canadian claimed this could result in an improvement of three to six times, with times in the two to four second range.
The heartbeat of the world and the role of Ethereum’s second layer
Vitalik summed up this idea with a powerful metaphor: “Ethereum is not a global video game server. Ethereum is the heartbeat of the world.
From this we can infer that he means that the base network should not be optimized for ultra-high speed applications. However, it needs to be a stable, secure, and decentralized reference.
As a result, he explained, applications that need to be faster must use components outside the main chain. Therefore, the second layer (L2) network will continue to be essential in large-scale Ethereum, he said.
In addition to speed, it also addresses use cases that require customization and even scale.
He went even further by introducing the variable of artificial intelligence. According to Vitalik, if an AI could think 1,000 times faster than humans, its “subjective speed of light” would be just 300 kilometers per second.
In that scenario he said: There will be applications that require local networks that are limited to cities or buildings.. These chains will inevitably be layer 2, he said.
Ethereum as BitTorrent and Linux
In the second post, Vitalik Buterin compared Ethereum to BitTorrent and Linux. That is, an open system that combines decentralization, scale, and mass adoption.
He argued that networks should serve both users seeking autonomy and large organizations, and that “mistrust” would lead to reduced risk for trading partners.
That balance, he said, defines the essence of Ethereum.