The scalability challenge of Ethereum has always been a focal point in the Web3 space. During Ethereum Day at Devconnect Argentina 2025, Vitalik Buterin systematically explained the answer to this problem in 30 minutes – how to achieve true scalability without sacrificing decentralization and security.

**Recent Breakthroughs (1-3 Years)**

The breakthroughs in the short term mainly come from optimizations at the protocol layer. Increasing the Gas limit, advancing the EIP-7732 proposal for proposer-builder separation, along with upgrades such as block-level access lists, can gradually enhance the mainnet's throughput. The key is that these improvements ensure the verifiability of nodes, and the degree of network decentralization will not be compromised.

**Technological Evolution of the Verification Layer**

What deserves more attention is the change in the verification mechanism. As zero-knowledge proof technologies like ZKVM and ZK-EVM become more mature, the cost of verifying chain states will significantly decrease. What does this mean? More ordinary users can participate in verification work in a lightweight manner, and it will no longer be the case that only large node operators can do this; the participation of full nodes will be significantly enhanced.

**Long-term Vision: Lean Ethereum**

Vitalik's long-term vision outlines a more imaginative space. By adopting simpler, more secure, and zero-knowledge proof-friendly protocol components, the core architecture of Ethereum is gradually redesigned. This not only lays the foundation for scalability by orders of magnitude but also reserves upgrade space for future technological challenges like quantum computing.

**Improvement on the user experience level**

From a technical perspective, privacy and security require more than just the support of zero-knowledge proofs. More user-friendly verification clients, more robust upgrade mechanisms, and smarter, low-trust assumption wallet and account models are equally important – all of which directly affect the end user's experience.

**Overall Trend**

Ethereum is upgrading from a purely infrastructure construction phase to the application layer and user experience layer. This roadmap embodies a principle: while adhering to technical ideals, gradually advancing the transition to large-scale applications. For the long-term development of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as ETH, SOL, and ZEC, this technological iteration is shaping the direction of the entire industry.