Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says the Hegota upgrade, slated for next year, will likely be the network’s last “normal” fork, with subsequent upgrades focused on proofs and other advanced cryptographic techniques. In a new essay, Buterin describes Ethereum’s future as a hybrid system combining Bitcoin’s original concepts with tools like SNARKs, PeerDAS, and recursive STARKs, targeting 4–8 second slots and faster finality by 2030. He argues decentralization will increasingly boost performance as parallelized computation becomes verifiable, reshaping developer incentives and supporting long-term projects like Lean Ethereum, while work continues on quantum safety and potential program obfuscation.
This update represents a notable development in the Crypto sector. Organizations and founders tracking this space should evaluate potential strategic and technical implications on their operations.