On February 25, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, on behalf of the EF Protocol team, published a technical coordination document called "Strawmap" on X. The portmanteau of "strawman" and "roadmap" signals it is a starting point for discussion rather than a binding commitment — in Ethereum's decentralized ecosystem, a single official roadmap cannot represent all stakeholders.
Seven Hard Forks, One Every Six Months, Through 2029
Strawmap outlines an upgrade cadence of roughly one hard fork every six months until end of 2029, totaling seven. Named forks include Glamsterdam and Hegotá; subsequent ones (I*, J*) remain placeholders. Each fork is scoped to "one consensus-layer priority + one execution-layer priority" to keep development and auditing manageable.
Five Core Targets: Speed, TPS, Quantum Resilience, Privacy
Drake listed five long-term technical goals: sub-second L1 finality — cutting current ~15-minute confirmation to seconds; 1 Gigagas/sec throughput — achieving ~10,000 TPS on L1 via zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine); high-throughput L2 — enabling ~10 million TPS on L2 through Data Availability Sampling; post-quantum cryptography — using hash-based schemes to withstand future quantum attacks; and native shielded transactions — making private ETH transfers a first-class protocol feature.
Evolving from the "Lean Ethereum" Vision
Strawmap descends from Drake's "Lean Ethereum" ten-year vision, proposed in July 2025, which targets extreme performance without sacrificing security or decentralization. In January, the Ethereum Foundation held an internal workshop to merge long-term goals with near-term development plans, resulting in Strawmap. Drake also announced a new Post Quantum team led by Thomas Coratger, alongside a $1 million "Poseidon Prize" to strengthen the Poseidon hash function — directly supporting Strawmap's quantum security objective.
Invitation, Not a Promise
Drake emphasized that Strawmap is "an invitation to look at L1 protocol upgrades with a holistic perspective," not a binding development commitment. The document is hosted at strawmap.org and will be updated at least quarterly to keep the community informed.