Vitalik Buterin Outlines Ethereum Scaling Plan, Covering Short-Term Gas Optimization and Long-Term ZK-EVM Phased Deployment

Odaily News Vitalik Buterin posted on X, stating that Ethereum scaling is divided into short-term and long-term parts. In the short term, the Glamsterdam upgrade will introduce block-level access lists to enable parallel validation, ePBS will allow using a larger proportion of slots for block validation, and Gas repricing will ensure operation costs align with actual execution time. The multi-dimensional Gas mechanism will be implemented in phases, starting with separating "state creation" costs from "execution and calldata" costs in Glamsterdam, where state creation Gas will not count towards the approximately 16 million transaction Gas limit. An EVM-level "reservoir" dimension mechanism will be introduced, defaulting to consuming dedicated dimension Gas first, and drawing from the reservoir when insufficient, with a future transition to multi-dimensional pricing allowing different floating Gas prices for different dimensions.

Long-term scaling includes ZK-EVM and blob parts. For blobs, the plan is to continuously iterate PeerDAS, targeting approximately 8MB per second data processing capacity, with future Ethereum block data going directly into blobs. For ZK-EVM, a phased approach is planned: by 2026, there will be validator clients supporting ZK-EVM, allowing about 5% of the network to rely on it; by 2027, expanding to a larger proportion of minority nodes while advancing formal verification; transitioning to a three-out-of-five mandatory proof mechanism when conditions mature, and ultimately continuously improving ZK-EVM security and formal verification levels, involving VM changes such as RISC-V.