Ethereum Rewrites the Blockchain Rulebook, Says Buterin

Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum Tackles the Blockchain Trilemma

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently announced that a set of upgrades is transforming Ethereum into a platform that combines high bandwidth, strong consensus, and broad decentralization — effectively addressing the long-standing blockchain trilemma. Buterin pointed to two complementary technologies reaching maturity: production-grade ZK-EVMs and PeerDAS running live on mainnet.

What ZK-EVMs and PeerDAS Mean for Ethereum

ZK-EVMs: Production-Quality Zero-Knowledge Validation

Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (ZK-EVM) technology has reached production-grade performance, according to Buterin. While safety audits and hardening remain, the core capability — validating blocks and state transitions using succinct proofs — is now viable. ZK-EVMs promise validation that is much cheaper to verify and enables higher throughput without compromising Ethereum's consensus security.

Buterin projects initial ZK-EVM node adoption beginning in 2026, with ZK-based validation possibly becoming the primary method for block verification between 2027 and 2030. This shift would allow the network to scale gas limits substantially while keeping proof sizes small and verification efficient.

PeerDAS: Removing Historical Bandwidth Limits

PeerDAS, now live on mainnet, is pivotal for overcoming historical bandwidth constraints. Where earlier architectures required full replication of work across nodes, PeerDAS introduces distributed approaches to data availability and delivery. That means nodes can safely participate in a high-bandwidth network without the same replication overhead that previously capped throughput.

Together, ZK-EVMs and PeerDAS create a design where consensus and decentralization no longer force bandwidth compromises.

Roadmap: From Bandwidth Increases to Distributed Block Building

Buterin outlined a multi-year rollout. Key milestones include:

• 2026: Introduction of larger non-ZK-EVM gas limits enabled by Bandwidth Allocation Limits (BALs) and enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS). This phase will also see the first practical opportunities to run ZK-EVM nodes.
• 2026–2028: Protocol-level changes such as gas repricings, state-structure adjustments, and moving execution payloads into blob storage. These changes prepare the chain for even higher gas limits safely.
• 2027–2030: Widespread adoption of ZK-EVM validation driving substantial gas increases. As ZK validation becomes the dominant block-validation method, the network can scale while preserving security and decentralization.

Beyond these steps, Buterin framed distributed block building as an aspirational, long-term goal. In this ideal, blocks are never assembled in a single centralized place; authority and block-building responsibilities are widely distributed to reduce centralization risk and improve geographic fairness.

Why This Matters for Developers and Users

Higher gas limits combined with ZK verification open new possibilities for scalable dApps, decentralized finance (DeFi), and tokenized economies. Developers can design richer smart contracts and applications without forcing users to endure prohibitive fees or slow settlement times. For node operators, ZK-EVM nodes offer a path to participate in validation with reduced hardware and bandwidth demands while maintaining strong consensus guarantees.

For the broader crypto ecosystem, the convergence of ZK-EVMs and PeerDAS signals a pivotal step toward realizing a truly global "world computer": a decentralized, open infrastructure that can host a far broader class of internet-native services.

Looking Ahead

Buterin’s call to action is clear: focus on shipping robust, secure features that move Ethereum toward its core mission — building a public, censorship-resistant, and scalable infrastructure for a freer internet. With production-quality ZK-EVMs and PeerDAS on mainnet, the community now has running code that demonstrates a credible path beyond the traditional trade-offs of scalability, security, and decentralization.

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"Now, Ethereum with PeerDAS (2025) and ZK-EVMs (expect small portions of the network using it in 2026), we get: decentralized, consensus and high bandwidth," Buterin wrote. "The trilemma has been solved – not on paper, but with live running code."

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