Vitalik Buterin Unveils New ‘Lean Ethereum” Strawmap

Part of the Ethereum Foundation’s plan to make Ethereum more private and scalable is to introduce a new virtual machine, with leanISA and RISC-V among the top candidates.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as three of Ethereum's top priorities under a new "Lean Ethereum" strawmap, which lays out the network's technical direction for the remainder of the decade.

In a post to X on Saturday, Buterin said the collection of upgrades will roll out over the next three to four years, touching nearly every layer of Ethereum in a transformation he compared in scale to the September 2022 Merge, which shifted the network away from energy-intensive mining.

“Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Enhancing privacy is another priority, Buterin said, stating that it has become a “first class goal.”

The “Lean Ethereum” strawmap timeline from 2026 through to 2029. Source: Strawmap.org

The change in roadmap comes amid a series of changes at the Ethereum Foundation, which laid off roughly 20% of its staff last month in a bid to become leaner and reduce its budget by 40%.

The leaner structure comes on top of several executive departures in recent months, including Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak, while protocol contributors Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot also left in May.

Buterin is also pushing for the development of a new virtual machine like leanISA or RISC-V to support programmable privacy and better scalability.

Dankrad Feist, a researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the new plan but argued the 3-4 year timeline is too slow, stating that AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year.

Related: Ethereum Foundation leadership exodus continues with director’s departure

Crypto analyst Ignas Fiodorovas was also in favor of the plan but cast doubt on the Ethereum Foundation's ability to deliver the upgrades within the stated timeline, citing the organization's history of missing deadlines.

Fiodorovas said the only key feature missing from the roadmap was improved tokenomics for Ether (ETH), which has continued to slide in price amid a broader market downturn.

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