Ethereum ‘Strawmap’ Charts Seven Forks to 2029

• Researchers at the Ethereum Foundation have published a “strawmap” detailing seven upgrades until 2029.
• The plan aims to achieve faster slot times, near-instant finality, and post-quantum security.
• Native privacy tools and extreme scalability boosts are still on the agenda.

Ethereum Foundation researchers have published a technical draft roadmap, or “strawmap,” that outlines seven possible network forks through 2029. This roadmap is very ambitious in terms of scalability, finality speed, and cryptographic security but recognizes that a decentralized network cannot have a single, authoritative roadmap.

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake explained that the strawmap is a “discussion document, not a roadmap.” The term combines “strawman” and “roadmap” to convey that the document is a proposal that can be changed. The Ethereum Foundation Architecture team will update the strawmap quarterly.

Five “North Stars” Guide the Vision

The strawmap outlines five key technical goals. Firstly, “fast L1” aims for shorter slot times and finality almost instantly. Secondly, “gigagas L1” seeks to process one gigagas per second, or about 10,000 transactions per second, via zkEVMs and real-time proving. 

Thirdly, “teragas L2” seeks to support 1 gigabyte per second of data bandwidth via data availability sampling. This target corresponds to about 10 million transactions per second at Layer 2 scaling.

Fourth, “Post-Quantum L1” brings hash-based cryptography to secure Ethereum against quantum computing in the future. Finally, “Private L1” suggests private ETH transfers to allow privacy functionality on the base layer itself.

Drake believes that the seven forks will be completed by 2029. However, he added that the use of AI-assisted development or formal verification might speed up the process.

Buterin Details Faster Blocks and Finality

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called the strawmap a very important technical framework. He explained how the times for slots will decrease from the current 12 seconds to 8, 6, 4, 3, and maybe 2 seconds.

Buterin also spoke about a concurrent overhaul of finality times. Currently, finality times are about 16 minutes. In the proposed chain, finality times could go down to 10 minutes and 40 seconds with 8-second slots. This could further reduce to 6 minutes and 24 seconds, 1 minute and 12 seconds, 48 seconds, 16 seconds, and further down to 8 seconds with aggressive settings.

Researchers plan to bundle major cryptographic upgrades with these slot reductions. They are evaluating responses to recent Poseidon2 hash vulnerabilities, including increasing round counts, reverting to Poseidon1, or adopting BLAKE3.

Privacy and Post-Quantum Security Take Center Stage

The inclusion of shielded ETH transfers signals a major shift toward built-in privacy. Rather than relying solely on Layer 2 or external tools, Ethereum could integrate first-class privacy at the protocol level.

Post-quantum cryptography also reflects long-term security planning. As quantum computing research advances, Ethereum developers want to ensure the network remains resistant to future cryptographic threats.

The strawmap does not guarantee implementation dates. Rather, it offers a structured dependency map that synchronizes slot reduction, finality redesign, zk scaling, and cryptographic improvements into a well-choreographed sequence.

The technical vision of Ethereum is still lofty. If the dev team delivers even a fraction of this vision, the Ethereum network can expect to reach for faster settlement times, massive scalability, improved privacy, and quantum resistance in this decade.

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