Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum does not pursue the fastest speed but aims to become the most secure and most decentralized chain, achieving ZKVM-led validation before 2028.

ME News report, April 20 (UTC+8), ChainCatcher live coverage: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. He defined Ethereum as having two core functions: first, a public bulletin board for applications to publish messages and data; second, a shared digital object controlled by code, covering assets, NFTs, ENS, and DAOs. He emphasized that Ethereum’s goal is not to compete with high-frequency trading platforms on speed, but to become the most secure, most decentralized, always-online trusted chain.

Regarding the short-term roadmap, he introduced the account abstraction proposal EIP-8141, which can natively support smart contract wallets, quantum-resistant signature algorithms, and privacy protocols. On quantum resistance, there are currently two signature schemes—hash-based and lattice-based—and the team is significantly improving their efficiency through EVM vectorization. He also revealed that ZKVM is already fast enough to prove real-time EVM execution; this year’s goal is to ensure its security, starting deployment from a small proportion of the network. By 2028, it aims to become the primary way for validation chains, greatly scaling Ethereum without sacrificing decentralization.

In terms of long-term vision, Ethereum is actively using AI-generated mathematical proofs to formally verify software security, and pursuing full quantum safety and maximum simplicity to ensure platform security without depending on the continued existence of any single team. (Source: ChainCatcher)