Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a comprehensive scaling roadmap, dividing the strategy into short-term and long-term phases. The short term relies on the upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork, targeting gas mechanics and block verification efficiency. The long term focuses on ZK-EVM and Blobs infrastructure, ultimately allowing nodes to verify blocks without re-executing transactions.
Glamsterdam Upgrade: Parallel Verification and ePBS
Vitalik places short-term emphasis on the Glamsterdam upgrade to extract more performance without sacrificing decentralization. Four key reforms include: block-level access lists enabling parallel verification, where nodes can simultaneously audit different parts of a block; ePBS mechanism extending the block verification time window to fully utilize each 12-second slot; gas repricing aligning operation costs with actual time consumption; and introducing multidimensional gas to differentiate resource types and curb state bloat.
For multidimensional gas implementation, Vitalik proposes a pragmatic step-by-step approach: in Glamsterdam, first separate "state creation cost" from ordinary gas, not counting it against the general gas limit, thus supporting larger contract creations without exacerbating state bloat. To maintain EVM backward compatibility, he designs a "reservoir" mechanism ensuring subcalls and gas operations function correctly under the new pricing.
Long-Term Scaling: Phased ZK-EVM + Blobs at 8MB/s
The long-term roadmap centers on ZK-EVM and Blobs. For Blobs, the target is reaching 8MB/s data availability via iterative PeerDAS upgrades, enabling block data to enter Blobs directly so nodes don't need full downloads for verification, drastically reducing hardware requirements.
ZK-EVM adopts a cautious phased approach: in 2026, roughly 5% of network nodes will use ZK-EVM for verification; in 2027, the proportion expands; eventually transitioning to a "3-of-5 multi-proof system" where three out of five independent proof systems must agree to confirm a block valid. This multi-proof architecture's ultimate goal is letting nodes verify block correctness without re-executing every transaction, unlocking ultra-high gas limits while maintaining security. Future Ethereum validators will no longer need powerful hardware.