Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, laid out a new long-term technical direction for the network under a "Lean Ethereum" strawman roadmap. Buterin has described the effort as the protocol's "third major iteration," comparable in magnitude to the September 2022 Merge.
The roadmap prioritizes quantum resistance, scalability and privacy, with Buterin citing an urgent need for quantum-safe solutions tied to blobs—the data availability layer underpinning rollups.
Buterin expects the upgrade effort to roll out over the next three to four years, spanning nearly every layer of Ethereum and unifying improvements across security, throughput and user protections.
Quantum readiness has moved to higher urgency. Buterin specifically pointed to quantum-safe solutions for blobs, which support data availability for rollups.
Privacy is a "first class goal" in the new roadmap, according to Buterin, making Ethereum more suitable for users and institutions requiring stronger confidentiality for on-chain activity.
Buterin also advocated for a new virtual machine concept he described as similar to "leanISA or RISC-V," emphasizing programmable privacy and improved scalability—a direction that could influence future smart contract execution and privacy primitive design.
The "lean" theme aligns with recent organizational changes at the Ethereum Foundation, which cut roughly 20 percent of staff as part of an effort to reduce its budget by 40 percent.
Those cuts follow a series of executive departures. Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak left their roles, and protocol contributors Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot departed in May.
