Ethereum's Decade of Transformation: From Infrastructure to Value and Belief Shift

This year’s Ethereum Devconnect developer conference sent a clear signal that caught the industry’s attention—Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin changed the pace of his speech from previous years. No longer entangling himself in technical details, he chose to look at this ten-year-old blockchain platform from a broader horizon, asking a more fundamental question: What is the true meaning of Ethereum’s existence?

“An escalator”—this metaphor was used by Hsiao-Wei Wang, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, to answer the question. The escalator has no end point; every builder can ascend at their own pace, and the Foundation’s role is to “stabilize the escalator” rather than climb to the top themselves. This is precisely a redefinition of Ethereum’s role after ten years.

From Technical Details to Principles

The contrast between the 2024 and 2025 speeches clearly reflects the depth of this transformation.

Last year, Vitalik elaborated on the “world computer” architecture—how L1 acts as a trust anchor, how L2 functions like a GPU providing complementary capabilities, and how various cryptographic tools connect the entire system. He said: “The reason Ethereum’s world computer is cohesive is because each GPU is connected to the most trusted machine through optimistic proofs, zero-knowledge proofs, SNARKs, STARKs, and other technologies.”

This year, it was different from the start. Vitalik opened with FTX as a cautionary tale—a once $32 billion market cap exchange that collapsed overnight due to centralization vulnerabilities. This contrast directly points to the core issue: the fundamental difference between Ethereum and centralized trust mechanisms.

He introduced the concept of “cosmolocal” (local-global), emphasizing that Ethereum is a global network that does not belong to any specific company or superpower. Cryptographic tools are no longer just technical topics but guarantees of freedom; decentralization is no longer just a vision but a necessity.

New Commitments to Reliability and Governance

Ethereum Foundation’s three core capabilities were clearly defined this time—reliability, flexibility, and guardian-style governance.

Reliability is the easiest to quantify: Ethereum has maintained a 100% continuous block production rate through every major upgrade. Over ten years, no block has been interrupted due to an upgrade. This stability is not accidental but results from rigorous engineering standards accumulated over time.

Flexibility is reflected in the acceptance of diverse technical paths. Different L2 teams can freely choose between optimistic proofs or zero-knowledge proofs based on Ethereum’s security foundation, exploring their own optimization directions. Ethereum does not enforce a single path.

Guardian-style governance is perhaps the most interesting part—The Foundation cares about Ethereum but does not control it. Wang emphasized that this care is reflected in countless trial-and-error efforts and persistence. “Ethereum’s ten-year accumulation has been achieved within this balance.”

Technological Breakthrough: The Era of Consumer-Grade ZK Proofs

If Ethereum in the past pursued “usability,” now it aims for “anyone can verify.”

The most notable technological breakthrough this year comes from the real-time proof domain. Vitalik announced at the conference that proof generators can now produce Ethereum block proofs in real-time using just a few dozen consumer-grade GPUs. What does this change?

In traditional models, each verifier needs to re-execute every transaction to verify a block, requiring expensive hardware and becoming a performance bottleneck. In the new model, a single proof generator creates a proof, and other verifiers can verify it within milliseconds—verification costs drop from execution-level to check-level.

Brevis’s Pico Prism zkEVM recently provided concrete data: in September testing, 99.6% real-time proof was achieved within 12 seconds using only 64 Nvidia RTX 5090 consumer-grade graphics cards. This means that what was once only feasible for mining farms can now be done by enthusiasts at home.

The Fusaka Upgrade Launching Next Month

Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade is scheduled for December, focusing on a core goal—simplifying real-time proof deployment.

Bitcoin security researcher Justin Drake explained the specific mechanism improvements: “EIP-7825 limits the gas used per transaction, enabling more parallel proofs within sub-blocks.” In other words, the same block space can now accommodate more proof work.

Wang Hsiao-Wei, during the upgrade presentation, reiterated Ethereum’s three promises—reliability through zero-downtime upgrades, flexibility to accommodate ecosystem diversity, and guardian-style governance that does not overreach.

The Critical Point of Institutional Adoption

Former Ethereum Foundation core researcher Danny Ryan approached from another angle—why traditional finance needs Ethereum.

He pointed out the absurdities of traditional systems: stock settlement takes T+1 days, bonds T+2 days, cross-border payments can take three to five days. On Ethereum, the same transactions are completed within minutes. “The architecture of traditional finance is like layers of laws and paper,” Ryan said.

But institutional needs are clear—decentralized infrastructure layers, nearly 100% online uptime, security for trillions of assets, and mature privacy protection solutions. These are not optional but systemic requirements.

Ryan emphasized that Ethereum’s modular design is especially attractive to institutions. Traditional institutions can deploy L2 solutions tailored to specific asset classes with partners, without sacrificing the security and liquidity provided by the Ethereum mainnet. This offers unprecedented flexibility.

The Philosophy Declaration of “Trustlessness”

Vitalik and co-author recently released “The Trustless Manifesto,” which is regarded as the philosophical cornerstone of Ethereum’s coming of age.

This document restates Ethereum’s primary principles: building systems relying on mathematics and consensus, not on people or platforms. It proposes three “laws”—no critical secrets, no indispensable intermediaries, no unverifiable results.

The most powerful statement is: “When only privileged parties can participate, we refuse to call the system ‘trustless.’”

The manifesto also contrasts with the evolution of email—initially an open, decentralized protocol where anyone could run their own mail server. But with spam, blocklists, and centralized reputation systems, ordinary users are effectively unable to host their own email services. Ethereum aims to avoid this kind of “taming” fate.

Privacy, Another Name for Freedom

In discussions about Ethereum’s future, Vitalik emphasized the importance of privacy.

“Privacy is freedom, and it is an essential right we should all protect. Everyone in the Ethereum ecosystem should support the concept of privacy.” He further pointed out that there should be no concept of ‘privacy wallets’; privacy should be a basic feature of all wallets, seamlessly integrated into the existing user experience.

This is not just technical detail but a rearticulation of Ethereum’s mission. Privacy is not optional but a fundamental infrastructure requirement.

Timeline for Performance Breakthroughs

Bankless’s Ryan Sean Adams provided a concrete scalability timeline: scaling at three times the current rate annually, Ethereum mainnet will reach 10,000 TPS by April 2029. Zero-knowledge proof technology could push the base layer to 10,000 transactions per second.

This is the ultimate goal pursued by the blockchain world—to achieve large-scale commercial-grade scalability while maintaining decentralization and security.

The Escalator Is Ready

From “world computer” to “world ledger,” from technical narrative to value narrative, Ethereum is completing its coming of age. This is not about abandoning technology but using technology to carry deeper ideals.

As Hsiao-Wei Wang said, every new step built by every builder becomes a starting point for others. The escalator has no end, but each step forward signifies more freedom and progress.