VITALIK JUST UPDATED ETHEREUM'S BIG PLAN 🚨👀📅
On 10 August 2026, @VitalikButerin put his 2023 plan next to the new Strawmap (Ethereum's public draft plan for the next few years) strawmap.org.
4 product changes that hit main Ethereum and every L2. ⚙️
1) Privacy on main Ethereum (not only on side apps) 🔐
Problem today:
On normal Ethereum transfers, the public can usually see who sent, who received, and how much. Institutions with huge capital don't like this model.
Goal:
People and companies can move money on main Ethereum without publishing every detail to the whole world.
What they want to build, in plain words:
✅ Private money moves on main Ethereum
✅ Harder for a validator to keep your private transaction out of the next block
Meaning:
Your private transaction first sits in the mempool (the pool of unconfirmed transactions waiting to be added to a block).
A validator helps decide which mempool transactions go into the next block.
Today a validator can skip your transaction on purpose, so it never gets confirmed.
EIP-7805 makes that harder: if many honest network nodes already saw your transaction in the mempool, the block is expected to include it.
✅ Wallets can switch the digital signature method used to approve a send
Straight meaning:
To send coins, your wallet must create a digital signature (math proof that you approved that transaction).
Today most wallets use one old signature method.
EIP-8141 lets wallets use newer signature methods.
Those newer methods help private transactions now, and quantum-safe wallets later.
When:
Most of this is aimed at the Hegotá period (after Glamsterdam). Rough target window: late 2026 to 2027.
2) Quantum safety (future computers that can break old crypto math) ⚛️🛡️
Today Ethereum uses digital signatures to prove “this wallet allowed this send.”
A strong future quantum computer could break that old math.
How they plan to do it (simple path):
🟥 Give users EIP-8141 so wallets can switch to quantum-safe approval methods over time
🟧 Rebuild validator voting with hash-based signatures (new style that quantum machines struggle to break), then compress the bigger data with proofs so the network still runs
🟨 Move data and app proofs toward STARK-style / hash-based systems that are safer against quantum attacks
When:
📅 Core post-quantum work is aimed around 2029 on the Lean Ethereum path
📅 Early wallet flexibility starts earlier (EIP-8141 around the Hegotá window)
📅 Full migration for all users and apps takes longer after that
3) Main Ethereum wants to get much faster 📈
Draft scale goals on the Strawmap:
💎 Main Ethereum (L1): about 10,000/tps transactions per second class target. (25-30 tps today)
💠 All L2s together: about 10 million transactions per second class target (mainly by giving L2s more cheap data room)
Near-term upgrade for scale:
Glamsterdam (targeted around late 2026)
It cleans how blocks are built and how clients read block data, so the network can safely raise capacity.
The plan is NOT “delete L2s.”
The plan is “make main Ethereum stronger, and still scale L2s hard.”
4) What happens to L2s then? 🔗🧠
Old story (2020–2024):
L2s exist mainly because main Ethereum is expensive.
People used @base, @Arbitrum, @Optimism and others mostly for cheaper fees.
New story from this roadmap:
Main Ethereum wants to be faster, more private, and quantum-safe.
L2s still get a giant data path (the “teragas L2” goal).
There is also EIP-8079 (native rollups, still draft): some L2s may reuse main Ethereum’s own checks, so they become simpler and closer to mainnet security.
🟥 If main Ethereum fees fall a lot, pure “I am only cheaper Ethereum” L2s get hurt
🟨 L2s that still win are the ones with a real extra product:
big user distribution, special app rules, company/compliance needs, unique consumer apps, or much better UX
🟩 Native rollups, if they ship, do not kill L2s. They just make it harder to survive.
If main Ethereum becomes faster and more private, will most users still need an L2 every day, or only for special apps? 