Vitalik Buterin Has a Bold New Plan to Fix Ethereum Scaling

Vitalik Buterin has published an ambitious Ethereum scaling roadmap in a blog post on X on February 27, outlining near-term throughput gains and longer-term cryptographic breakthroughs to expand the network's capacity. The plan marks a pivot back toward base-layer improvements after years in which layer-2 rollups dominated Ethereum's scaling strategy, and follows the Ethereum Foundation's recently released strawmap for long-term efficiency.

What Is Buterin's Near-Term Ethereum Scaling Strategy?

Buterin's near-term Ethereum scaling strategy centers on making blocks faster to verify, according to his post. Upcoming upgrades will let computers running the network review different parts of a block simultaneously through parallel verification, rather than processing everything sequentially. That alone should let validators work through blocks more efficiently.

A redesign of block construction will also help. Currently, Ethereum finishes processing well before each 12-second slot expires, wasting capacity. A mechanism called ePBS — enshrined proposer-builder separation — will let the network use more of every slot. This ships in the forthcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, according to Buterin. Combined, these changes should let Ethereum fit more transactions per block without increasing the risk of errors.

Restructuring Gas Fees for Sustainability

A key element involves rethinking how transaction fees — known as gas — are calculated. Buterin argues the current model fails to distinguish between temporary computation and permanent data storage, even though they impose vastly different long-term costs on the network.

Deploying a new smart contract permanently expands the blockchain's size, forcing every Ethereum node to store that data forever. Buterin warns this growing burden threatens to push out smaller node operators who cannot afford the necessary hardware. His proposal would make permanent storage more expensive while opening room for routine transaction processing — letting Ethereum handle more activity without accelerating blockchain growth.

The goal is to avoid a future in which Ethereum processes more transactions but becomes so data-intensive that only large, well-funded players can afford to participate.

— Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Co-Founder

How Will Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Blobs Shape Ethereum's Future?

Longer term, Buterin envisions Ethereum leaning heavily on zero-knowledge proofs — a cryptographic method that lets one party prove a statement without revealing underlying data. Combined with expanded capacity through blobs, these tools would fundamentally change how the network is validated. Blobs were originally introduced to help layer-2 rollups post data cheaply, but Buterin proposes repurposing them to carry the main chain's own transaction data.

That shift would let validators confirm activity without re-executing every transaction, dramatically cutting the computational load needed to secure the network. The approach decouples validation from execution — a philosophy Buterin calls essential to keeping Ethereum decentralized at scale.

What This Means Going Forward

Buterin's blueprint signals a strategic recalibration for Ethereum. After years of delegating throughput improvements to layer-2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism, the co-founder is pushing for base-layer upgrades that benefit the entire ecosystem. The Glamsterdam upgrade will serve as the first concrete test.

Whether the community embraces the gas fee restructuring remains an open question. Making permanent storage pricier could face resistance from developers who deploy contracts frequently. Still, Buterin frames it as essential to long-term decentralization — ensuring Ethereum node operation stays within reach of individuals, not just well-capitalized institutions.