Vitalik outlines vision as Ethereum ecosystem addresses hit new high

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released another update on what he believes the future of the network should entail.

In an April 30 post on blockchain-based social media platform Farcaster, Buterin outlined his personal areas of focus for Ethereum development this year. These include investigating changes to the network infrastructure to achieve single-slot finality, updates to smart contract execution and enhancements to privacy.

The post comes as the Ethereum network hits a new milestone. GrowThePie data shows that the weekly number of unique addresses interacting with the Ethereum ecosystem reached a new high of over 15.4 million, with nearly 13.45 million on layer-2 protocols.

Weekly chart of unique active addresses in the Ethereum ecosystem. Source: GrowThePie

Buterin recently argued that privacy should be a top priority for developers and proposed solutions to boost privacy on Ethereum. Earlier in April, he also published a short-term privacy roadmap for Ethereum, detailing technical solutions to the network’s transparency.

Buterin’s focus on forward-looking research follows changes at the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit organization developing the Ethereum ecosystem. Earlier this month, the Ethereum Foundation co-executive director, Tomasz Stańczak, said that Buterin now has more time for research and exploration.

“Each time Vitalik shares insights or communicates a direction, he accelerates major long‑term breakthroughs,” he wrote.

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Proposed Ethereum protocol changes

In today’s post, Buterin said that this year, he would be researching single-slot finality on Ethereum. This proposed upgrade would allow blocks to become final in a single slot within 12 seconds. This would significantly reduce the time needed to confirm transactions irreversibly and improve user experience.

Another area of focus would be making Ethereum stateless. This would lead to nodes no longer storing the full state (account balances, contracts, etc.) but instead requiring users to provide the necessary state data (witnesses) with each transaction. This could potentially improve scalability and decentralization.

Buterin also expects to study ways to improve the ecosystem’s cybersecurity on both the front and back ends, as well as its resilience and decentralization. He set some objectives that he specified should also apply to client software, such as third-party wallets:

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Not just the protocol

Besides working on the Ethereum protocol, Buterin expects to dedicate his attention to improving communication tools, information sharing, and the social layer surrounding Ethereum. This includes governance changes, the network’s resources management and open-source development funding.

Buterin explained that this also involves developing better encrypted messaging, software documentation, and leading their adoption in the ecosystem. He also hinted at developing prediction markets and related technology, as well as some potential new types of communication tools.

Other objectives include the lower-level development. Buterin cited the intention to investigate cryptography, operating systems, hardware, physical infrastructure and biological defence without further explanation.

Buterin also cited some areas of development where he is not personally involved, including plans to increase Ethereum’s gas limit as a short-term scalability solution, as well as peer-to-peer systems.

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