Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as Ethereum’s top three priorities as part of a novel “Lean Ethereum” straw map that sets the technical direction of the network for the rest of the decade.
In a post to X on Saturday Buterin he said a set of updates will roll out over the next three to four years, touching almost every layer of Ethereum in a transformation that he compared in scale to the September 2022 merger that moved the network away from energy-intensive mining.
“Quantum security has changed the priority significantly,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-secure solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Buterin said increasing privacy is another priority, stating that this has become a “first-class goal.”
Lean Ethereum Straw Map Timeline from 2026 to 2029 Source: Strawmap.org
The change in action plan comes after a series of changes at the Ethereum Foundation, which last month laid off about 20% of its staff in a bid to lose weight and reduce its budget by 40%.
The leaner structure has seen the departure of several executives in recent months, including Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak, while protocol associates Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot also left in May.
Buterin is also pushing for the development of a novel virtual machine, such as LeanISA or RISC-V, that would support programmable privacy and better scalability.
Questions remain about Buterin’s timeline
Dankrad Feist, a researcher behind the payments-focused Tier 1 blockchain Tempo, praised the novel plan but argued that the 3-4 year time horizon is too sluggish, stating that artificial intelligence could lend a hand developers deliver updates within a year.
Related: The exodus of Ethereum Foundation leadership continues with the departure of a director
Crypto analyst Ignas Fiodorovas also supported the plan, but questioned the Ethereum Foundation’s ability to deliver the update on time, citing the organization’s history of missing deadlines.
Fedorovas said the one key feature missing from the roadmap is improved tokenomics for Ether (ETH), whose price continues to fall amid the broader market downturn.
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