Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has laid out a long-term, century-spanning vision for the network's future, centered on the principle of ultimate resilience and independence. In a detailed post on X, Buterin introduced the "walkaway test"—a benchmark for Ethereum to operate safely and usefully even if all its current developers were to disappear.
The core philosophy is that Ethereum should function more like a durable tool, such as a hammer, which a user owns and works indefinitely without reliance on a company for updates. "Ethereum itself must pass the walkaway test," Buterin stated. He emphasized that applications built on Ethereum should not fail if a supporting company shuts down or is hacked, ensuring users retain control over their assets and data.
To achieve this foundational stability, Buterin presented a seven-point checklist of critical upgrades Ethereum must accomplish in the coming years:
1. Full Quantum-Resistance: The protocol must be secure against future quantum computers. Buterin stressed urgency, stating, "Being able to say 'Ethereum’s protocol, as it stands today, is cryptographically safe for a hundred years' is something we should strive to get to as soon as possible."
2. Massive Scalability: Achieving thousands of transactions per second (TPS) through technologies like ZK-EVM validation and data sampling via PeerDAS.
3. Long-Term State Architecture: Developing a data storage system that can scale for decades without overburdening node operators or slowing network synchronization.
4. Full Account Abstraction: Upgrading the account system to remove legacy signature rules and create more flexible, powerful wallets.
5. Secure Gas Schedule: Ensuring the gas fee mechanism is resistant to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that could slow the network.
6. Decentralized Proof-of-Stake: Maintaining a fair and decentralized validator model for many decades.
7. Censorship-Resistant Block Building: Preventing centralization in block production to ensure no single entity controls transaction inclusion.
Buterin's roadmap aims for Ethereum to reach a state of "ossification," where most future upgrades are simple parameter changes voted on by validators, rather than complex and risky hard forks. He expects at least one major goal to be checked off per year, with the heavy development work completed now to ensure stability for generations.
The vision was met with support from the community, with commentators agreeing that a blockchain's true value is revealed when it functions independently of its creators. Buterin concluded with confidence, framing Ethereum as a lasting foundation for finance, identity, and governance: "Ethereum goes hard. This is the gwei."
