Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Maps Shift to ZK-EVM Validation in 2027–2030 Roadmap

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on X post that zk-EVMs are an almost certain replacement of the existing block validation method on the network between 2027 and 2030. He claimed that the technology is getting to production-level performance. He further mentioned that the other area is safety and that some of the critical elements of the upgrade are already in operation in Ethereum today.

Buterin reports that the trilemma in the industry that had been longstanding is being resolved with actual code. He indicated data availability sampling, which is operational on mainnet. He also added that zk-EVMs would run at the production rate. These improvements, according to him, are a transition between theory and execution.

He discussed the development of Ethereum in comparison with the previous peer-to-peer systems. He mentioned BitTorrent in 2000, a concept that is highly bandwidth and decentralized but lacks consensus. Then he cited the case of Bitcoin in 2009, which was based on good consensus but with a low bandwidth since its work was replicated.

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Ethereum’s Next Phase With zk-EVMs

Buterin stated it would be a combination of decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth. He says PeerDAS in 2025 and early zk-EVM involvement in 2026 to support the model. He has mentioned that the blend is a new phase of Ethereum that is to be discussed widely.

He wrote that the upgrade of Ethereum scaling is in a definite sequence. The network shall improve the gas limit using BALs and ePBS in 2026. Such gains are independent of zk-EVMs. The first limited node operation of the network by zk-EVM may also be in use by the same year.

Buterin mentioned that further larger gas limit increases will occur between 2027 and 2030. According to him, zk-EVMs will form the primary method of checking the blocks throughout the system at that time. He claimed the new change will reinvent the Ethereum way of processing data and checking the transactions.

The other segment of the roadmap is distributed block building. Buterin indicated that the vision is a system in which an entire block is not built by a single party. According to him, this minimizes the dangers of centralization in what is included in a transaction. He also added that it enhances equity among network participants.

Paths Toward More Distributed Block Building

He provided alternatives to this structure. One of these directions may be the expansion of in-protocol features like FOCIL. Another alternative may be based on distributed builder markets out of the protocol. He explained that both ways are expected to distribute power evenly.

The Ethereum Foundation reported that zk-EVMs put top gas limits safe at the base layer. It claimed that the upgrades make networks capacity-increasing and aid in congestion management. It has stated that work streams are divided into three, and steps are being taken with several implementations for clients.

According to Butterin, the upgrades of Ethereum are the result of years of research and development. He observed that data availability has been studied early enough in a period of about ten years. He also said that zk-EVM activities started in the area of 2020 and have progressed to the level of production performance.

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