Ethereum

<h2 id="header-0">Ethereum News</h2>
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published an essay describing how the network will transform after its next major upgrade, calling the result a "cryptographic world computer."&nbsp;
<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/6cc9df9d6e504f85b212ba77bcfea208.png">
The <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2104160561374343176?s=20">piece </a>frames Ethereum (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/">ETH</a>) as moving away from a traditional blockchain model and toward a hybrid system built on advanced cryptography.
Buterin's <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2026/09/27/the_cryptographic_world_computer.html">post </a>centers on the Hegota fork, expected before the end of 2026. He described Hegota as likely to be Ethereum's last "normal" fork, meaning it will still include features that would look familiar to someone using the network in 2015.
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<h2 id="header-1">What Comes After the Hegota Fork</h2>
Everything planned after Hegota involves a different kind of change, according to the post. Buterin listed recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, more efficient consensus algorithms, and quantum-safe cryptography as the core pieces of this next phase.
He argued that Ethereum has always shared some features with Bitcoin (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/">BTC</a>), the original blockchain created in 2009. But he said the technology has changed enough that it now makes sense to describe Ethereum as a fundamentally different kind of system. The shift, he wrote, combines original blockchain concepts with cryptographic tools that either did not exist or were not mature when Bitcoin launched.
<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/324bbab2a5074609ae860a4249fffd81.png">
Several technical building blocks appear throughout the post. These include FOCIL, a mechanism designed to guarantee that valid transactions are included in blocks, and EIP-8288, a proposal tied to the network's move toward leaner consensus. Buterin also referenced<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/zero-knowledge-proof"> zero-knowledge proofs</a>, which allow one party to prove a claim is true without revealing the underlying data. He said these proofs will play a larger role at the network’s base layer rather than only inside individual applications.
<h2 id="header-2">How Decentralization Becomes a Performance Advantage</h2>
Buterin described a shift in how the network's decentralized structure affects performance. He said decentralization has mostly been treated as a trade-off for safety and robustness, but that in some cases it can now improve performance too. He pointed to the ability to store larger volumes of data in parallel and process more computation at once inside the mempool, the waiting area where pending transactions sit before they are added to a block.
He also addressed how the trade-offs facing users will change. Buterin wrote that censorship resistance will strengthen through FOCIL, which is designed to guarantee real-time transaction inclusion. He said blockchain latency should also improve, moving from roughly 17 seconds per block and around 200 seconds for 12 confirmations today to an estimated four to eight seconds per slot and eight to 32 seconds for finality under the new design.
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Buterin also raised the long-term possibility of a technology called obfuscation, sometimes referred to as iO. He said fully developed obfuscation could remove the trade-off between privacy and general-purpose computation, allowing many participants to run complex programs in a fully encrypted form. He noted that even early or limited versions of obfuscation could support tools like encrypted mempools, though he said the rest of the roadmap does not depend on this technology becoming available.
The post also acknowledged unresolved challenges. Buterin said making<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/zero-knowledge-rollups"> zero-knowledge rollups</a> and related proof systems efficient enough remains difficult, though AI tools are helping progress. He described managing large amounts of network state as a bigger and more complex problem that will require further work as new applications emerge.
Ethereum first began shifting away from a purely traditional blockchain model with PeerDAS, an earlier upgrade tied to how the network handles data availability. Buterin said that shift will become the network's main storyline once Hegota ships, built on a<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/consensus-mechanism"> consensus mechanism</a> that differs sharply from the proof-of-work systems blockchains originally relied on. He said the goal is cheaper, more scalable, and more private high-security computation than what was possible using earlier blockchain designs alone.

Ethereum To Undergo Major Shift After Hegota Fork, Buterin Says

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