Buterin explains what Ethereum could look like by 2030

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Eugene Komchuk

28.09.2026

Buterin explains what Ethereum could look like by 2030 — How Ethereum will change over the next four years

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed moving a significant share of computation off-chain by 2030, while using short cryptographic proofs to verify that the work was done correctly. The approach is intended to increase Ethereum’s throughput while also improving user privacy.

In his post, Buterin described a system combining the blockchain itself, cryptographic proofs and computation performed outside the network. In his view, this would allow Ethereum to process more activity without sharply increasing the burden on network participants.

Today, computers verifying Ethereum largely repeat the same calculations. For example, they check whether a sender has enough funds and whether a smart contract acted within the rules encoded in it. This approach improves reliability, but it also limits scalability because adding more computers does not produce a proportional increase in network performance.

Buterin believes modern cryptographic proofs can solve this problem. One computer could perform the calculations and produce a short mathematical proof showing that the work was completed correctly. Other participants would then only need to verify the proof instead of repeating the entire computation.

As a result, different computers could work on different tasks at the same time while still checking one another’s results. According to Buterin, Ethereum developers wanted to distribute workloads in a similar way about a decade ago, but there was no sufficiently efficient verification mechanism at the time.

Privacy will become part of the new architecture

Some operations would still need to be coordinated directly on the blockchain. For example, the network would have to determine transaction order if several transactions try to spend the same funds. However, a large share of the computation could be completed in advance, with only compact proofs recorded on-chain.

Another major area of development is privacy. Today, even checking a wallet balance often requires querying an external server, whose operator may be able to see which addresses a user is interested in. Buterin proposes hiding these requests along with payment details and the rules used to manage accounts.

This could, for example, allow companies to avoid revealing their addresses every time an employee checks a balance and better protect information about fund movements.

Other projects are already developing similar solutions. Zcash allows users to hide addresses and transaction amounts using cryptographic proofs. Researchers have also proposed applying a similar approach to improve payment privacy on the Bitcoin network.

Why Buterin wants to rebuild Ethereum

One reason for such a large-scale overhaul is that Ethereum is finding it increasingly difficult to compete with newer networks. Although it remains the largest DeFi platform by total value locked and continues to hold strong positions among developers and institutional players, its lead in day-to-day activity is no longer as clear. For example, Solana outpaces Ethereum in transaction count, active users and decentralized exchange trading volume. In the first quarter of 2026, Solana processed around 10.1 billion transactions, compared with just over 200 million on Ethereum.

Ethereum is gradually addressing the problem of expensive and slow transactions: fees have fallen significantly and transaction volumes have increased. However, the network’s architecture still requires many participants to repeat the same computations, which limits scalability. Buterin’s cryptographic-proof model is designed to remove this bottleneck and allow Ethereum to expand capacity without sacrificing decentralization — bringing the network closer to newer competitors in speed and usability while preserving its core strengths in verifiability and security.

As a reminder, ARK Invest is tokenizing a venture fund on Ethereum through Securitize.

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