#VitalikUnveilsLeanEthereum

"Lean Ethereum" could become the most ambitious upgrade to Ethereum since the 2022 merge. It is not just a technical optimization, but a complete restructuring over 3-4 years aimed at replacing "almost all core protocol components."

If this plan is successfully implemented, Ethereum's core logic will be completely rewritten:

1. Performance and Cost: Gas fees could be reduced by more than 10 times

The biggest change lies in the verification method: Ethereum will introduce recursive STARK (a type of zero-knowledge proof), where nodes will no longer replay transactions one by one, but will only verify compact cryptographic proofs on-chain.

· Multi-dimensional gas pricing will independently calculate costs for computation, storage, and data, leading to more sensible resource pricing.

• Under the new system architecture, by 2030 it will be able to support 100 TB of new data types, and gas fees in certain scenarios are expected to drop to less than one tenth of the current level. The target throughput is approximately 10,000 transactions per second for L1 and approximately 1 million transactions per second for L2.

2. Consensus and Speed: Confirmation in fractions of a second

The consensus mechanism will be simplified to 1-2 rounds of confirmation, potentially achieving confirmation times under a second. This means a significant reduction in wait times for transfers or DeFi interactions.

3. Security Paradigm: Proactive defense against the "quantum crisis"

In the face of the looming threat of quantum computers (over 34% of Bitcoin's public keys have been permanently exposed), Ethereum has elevated quantum-resistant cryptography from a "research topic" to an urgent priority. A complete replacement of vulnerable cryptographic components, such as BLS signatures, is planned by approximately 2029.

4. Privacy Protection: From "optional" to "mandatory"

Privacy is officially recognized as a "primary goal," not a post-development add-on. Future core components, such as the mempool and state tree, will be natively designed to support privacy-preserving transactions without intermediaries.

5. Ultimate Goal: Beyond the EVM

In the long term, Ethereum may adopt RISC-V or its own custom LeanISA as a native execution environment, while the existing EVM may be downgraded to a "compilation target" to maintain compatibility.

However, this double-edged sword also creates uncertainty:

· Execution Risk: Restructuring "almost all" components within 3-4 years is a massive undertaking. Recently, the Ethereum Foundation laid off 20% of its staff and cut its budget by 40%, raising doubts about critics' ability to meet commitments on time.

• Short-term disruptions: During the transition period, development complexity increases, and ecosystem projects may need to adapt to the new architecture.

Overall, if the "simplification of Ethereum" succeeds, ETH will become a faster, lower-fee, quantum-resistant, and natively privacy-preserving base network, fundamentally changing its asset characteristics and ability to support large-scale applications. However, this will require navigating a complex and uncertain technical landscape. If Vitalik's plan is realized, it will indeed strengthen ETH's long-term position as the "world computer."

$ETH