Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said blockchain networks must decide between following speculative trends and fulfilling their original promise as a neutral “world computer.”
In two detailed posts on social media platform X, Buterin reflected on 2025 as a year of great technological advances.
But he cautioned against the network’s increasing dependence on what he called the “next meta,” a cycle defined by political meme coins, tokenized dollars, and efforts to artificially increase the use of the network for economic signaling.
Instead, Buterin argued that Ethereum has reached a pivotal moment in which it finally solves the industry’s most long-standing engineering paradox: the scalability trilemma.
He cited major upgrades in 2025, including the mainnet activation of PeerDAS and the maturation of the Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (ZK-EVM), to declare that the network has overcome the trade-offs. These tradeoffs have previously forced blockchains to choose between decentralization, security, and speed.
As a result, Buterin says, Ethereum is becoming more of a new kind of shared computing platform than just a blockchain.
However, he emphasized that these technological milestones are not the end goal, but rather the basis for a “rebellion” against a centralized, subscription-based Internet.
end of trilemma
For more than a decade, blockchain developers have been operating on the premise of the “scalability trilemma.” This theory assumes that decentralized networks can achieve only two of three properties: decentralization, security, and scalability.
In his message, Buterin argued that those days are effectively over, not just in theoretical research papers but in “actually running code.”
To illustrate the magnitude of change, Buterin drew a historical comparison of the two major types of peer-to-peer networks that defined the Internet era.
He pointed to BitTorrent, which was launched in 2000. This provided huge aggregate bandwidth and a high degree of decentralization, but lacked consensus.
Conversely, Bitcoin, launched in 2009, introduced highly decentralized consensus, but suffered from low bandwidth issues because the network was not truly decentralized. Instead, the work was simply replicated across all nodes.
Buterin posits that Ethereum in 2025, with PeerDAS and the new ZK-EVM technology, will unite these two different strains. This combination enables a network that simultaneously supports decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth.
He pointed out that half of the solution, Data Availability Sampling (DAS), is already on mainnet today. In contrast, the other half of ZK-EVMs reach production quality performance with only safety checks remaining.
Considering this, he said:
“Ethereum with PeerDAS (2025) and ZK-EVM (we expect a small portion of the network to use Ethereum in 2026) has solved the trilemma of decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth.”
This integration is the culmination of a “10-year journey” that references research dating back to our initial commitments to data availability and erasure coding.
This breakthrough means the network can handle more activity, reduce bottlenecks, and make it easier for individuals to run the software that keeps Ethereum running without sacrificing its decentralized design.
rebellion against centralization
Although technical achievements serve as the backbone of Mr. Buterin’s updates, his message was very emphatic about the ideological purpose of these upgrades.
He framed a revamped Ethereum not as a tool for financial speculation, but as a direct counterforce to the modern digital economy.
Buterin explicitly contrasted Ethereum’s potential with the rise of subscription-based digital services that lock users into centralized platforms.
He described the current internet environment as one in which everyday tools are being replaced by services that rely on third-party intermediaries, leaving users vulnerable if their provider goes offline or is compromised.
He wrote:
“Ethereum is a rebellion against this.”
Central to this vision is the concept of the “walk-away test,” a core benchmark introduced by Buterin to measure the true usefulness of a network. This test asks whether an application or system can continue to run regardless of who maintains it.
In Buterin’s view, applications built on Ethereum should function without fraud, censorship, or third-party control, even if the original developer disappears completely.
He argued that for Ethereum to be successful, it must simultaneously meet two requirements: global ease of use and true decentralization. He warned that this challenge applies not only to the blockchain itself, including the software people use to run the nodes, but also to the applications built on top of it.
He said that despite using decentralized protocols, many current applications still rely on centralized services, and he hopes new infrastructure will eliminate this vulnerability.
Roadmap towards 2030
Looking ahead, Buterin outlined a specific multi-year roadmap detailing how these innovations will be rolled out to users and developers.
He explained that ZK-EVM’s current status is in the “alpha stage,” featuring production-quality performance, with the remaining work focused on safety.
Buterin expects this vision to be fully realized through a series of planned upgrades over the next four years.
In 2026, the network plans to implement a significant gas limit increase that is not dependent on ZK-EVM. These increases are facilitated by technological adjustments known as BAL and ePBS.
Additionally, 2026 will provide the first opportunity for users to run ZK-EVM nodes, marking an important step in the adoption of the technology.
The roadmap calls for revising gas prices and changing the national structure of the network from 2026 to 2028.
During this period, execution payloads are moved to “blobs,” which are data storage solutions designed for efficiency, as well as other adjustments aimed at increasing the gas limits that the network can safely handle.
Buterin predicts a further significant increase in gas limits by the 2027-2030 window, as ZK-EVM becomes the primary method for validating blocks on the network.
This transition represents a fundamental change in how Ethereum validates transactions, moving from the replication model of the past to a verified zero-knowledge proof system that maximizes efficiency.
Buterin’s message made clear that these are not “minor improvements” but a move to “a fundamentally new and more powerful kind of decentralized network.”
He positioned Ethereum as a durable infrastructure for finance, identity, governance, and other fundamental internet services, and emphasized that powerful tools now exist to advance this effort.
“Holy Grail”
Beyond the immediate roadmap on scaling and gas limits, Buterin emphasized long-term aspirations for how transactions are assembled on the network.
He described “decentralized block building” as the ecosystem’s “long-term holy grail.”
The goal is to reach a future where a complete block of transactions is “never composed in a single place.” While Buterin acknowledged that this level of decentralization may not be strictly necessary in the long term, he argued that it’s worth the effort to ensure the network has that capability.
The immediate goal is to distribute meaningful authority over block construction as widely as possible.
Buterin suggested that this could be achieved either through “in-protocol” methods, such as extending the FOCIL mechanism to serve as the primary channel for transactions, or “out-of-protocol” methods, including a decentralized builder marketplace.
The importance of this change lies in its risk reduction benefits. By decentralizing the block construction process, the network reduces the risk of centralized interference with the incorporation of real-time transactions.
Additionally, Buterin said such a system would create a “better environment for geographic equity,” ensuring fairness in network access regardless of a user’s physical location.
Ultimately, Buterin’s New Year’s address served as both a report on technological progress and a philosophical corrective. By arguing that technical means to solve the trilemma are now available, he removes the engineering excuses that once justified centralization.
The question that remains, as he puts it, is whether the community will harness this power to build a “world computer” that passes walk-away tests, or continue chasing the economic signals of the next market cycle.