Vitalik Buterin has laid out one of the clearest explanations yet of Ethereum’s new “strawmap” technical plan, with the headline goal of pushing slot times on layer 1 from the current 12 seconds to as low as 2 seconds. In the same track, finality could fall to 6 to 16 seconds. Buterin said Ethereum’s average finality today is roughly 16 minutes.
Fast L1 sits at the center of the proposal
In his post, Buterin described “fast L1” as a core objective of the broader roadmap. The change is not framed as a single jump. Slot times would be reduced step by step, potentially using a “sqrt(2) at a time” formula, and only after each stage is shown to be safe. For finality, the proposal points to a one-round BFT-style algorithm called Minimmit, designed to bring confirmation down into a seconds-level range.
He also detailed the supporting changes needed to make shorter slots practical. Those include peer-to-peer networking upgrades based on erasure coding to improve block propagation, along with architectural changes that cut signature aggregation overhead by reducing the number of attesters per slot. The direction is straightforward: speed up the base layer without dropping security assumptions.
The document sketches seven forks through 2029
The strawmap was introduced by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and is described as a coordination tool rather than an official roadmap. Even so, it lays out a long-range technical path through 2029, with seven projected forks spanning the consensus, data, and execution layers.
The plan lists five long-term “north stars”: fast L1, gigagas L1 throughput, teragas L2 scaling, post-quantum security, and native privacy. Taken together, those targets point to quicker user interactions, higher throughput, stronger cryptography, and broader formal verification across the stack.
Quantum-resistant cryptography may arrive through gradual replacement
Buterin said some of the most invasive changes, including quantum-resistant hash-based signatures, could be grouped into a gradual replacement of Ethereum’s consensus system. He compared that process to a “ship of Theseus” transition, where the system is replaced piece by piece rather than through a single reset.
While the strawmap is not being presented as the foundation’s formal roadmap, it shows where current research is heading. The message from Buterin’s breakdown is direct: Ethereum is exploring a path from minute-level finality toward second-level confirmation, with networking, consensus, and cryptography all being reworked along the way.