The Ethereum Foundation has published a draft long-range roadmap called “Strawmap”, laying out a possible sequence of seven protocol forks running through 2029. Introduced by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, the document is framed as a coordination tool for Ethereum developers rather than a binding roadmap for the network.
Drake described it as a “strawman roadmap,” stressing that the plan is provisional by design. In his view, a decentralized system such as Ethereum cannot realistically produce a single official roadmap that fully represents every stakeholder. Consensus shifts over time. The Strawmap is meant to show one coherent path, not a fixed prediction of what Ethereum will ultimately adopt.
A longer planning horizon for Ethereum developers
The document is aimed at advanced readers, including client developers, researchers, and participants involved in Ethereum governance. It gives a technical overview of Layer 1 ambitions across the consensus, execution, and data layers, placing multi-year upgrade ideas on one visual timeline. That makes it notably broader than the near-term focus of All Core Developers calls, with the schedule extending to the end of the decade.
Under the current draft, the plan assumes roughly one upgrade every six months, which produces a seven-fork outline through 2029. Upcoming forks such as Glamsterdam and Hegotá already have finalized names, while later entries remain placeholders. Drake also warned against treating the dates as firm commitments, saying development could speed up materially if AI tooling or formal verification shortens engineering timelines.
Five technical “north stars” shape the roadmap
At the center of the Strawmap are five long-term “north stars.” One track focuses on faster Layer 1 performance through shorter slot times and finality measured in seconds. Another is the “gigagas” Layer 1 goal, which targets roughly 10,000 transactions per second by combining zkEVM integration with real-time proving. A third is the “teragas” Layer 2 vision, using data availability sampling to support as many as 10 million transactions per second on Layer 2.
The remaining priorities cover post-quantum cryptography and protocol-level privacy. The roadmap points to hash-based signature schemes for post-quantum security and proposes first-class privacy through shielded ETH transfers. Taken together, the framework shows Ethereum planning across throughput, security, and privacy at the same time, rather than treating them as separate upgrade tracks.
Finality in seconds remains a major objective
One of the most consequential targets is reducing transaction finality from about 15 minutes today to only a few seconds. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has previously discussed phased changes to slot times and consensus mechanics that would move block production from 12 seconds toward as low as 2 seconds, while redesigning finality systems to preserve security guarantees.
The Strawmap began as a discussion prompt at an Ethereum Foundation workshop in January 2026. Part of the goal was to better align longer-term research with short-term upgrade planning. By visually mapping upgrade dependencies and fork constraints, the framework highlighted coordination challenges and strategic trade-offs. Drake later shared it publicly in what he described as a push for proactive transparency and acceleration.