Ethereum founder Vitalik on the path to scalability: prioritize bandwidth over latency, why L2 is still essential

2026-01-08 07:40:10

【CryptoWorld】Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently shared his views on the direction of blockchain scalability on social media. He believes that instead of solely pursuing low latency, it is more practical to prioritize increasing bandwidth.

According to Vitalik’s explanation, through technologies like PeerDAS (Peer-to-Peer Data Availability Sampling) and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), Ethereum could theoretically achieve thousands of times of scalability. It sounds very appealing, but the problem is—latency bottlenecks are not something that technology alone can solve. The physical limitations of the speed of light and node distribution are real constraints.

So realistically speaking, Ethereum might reduce latency to around 2-4 seconds, which is already a relatively optimistic expectation. Vitalik also emphasized a key positioning issue: “Ethereum is the heartbeat of the world, not the world’s game server.” This succinct statement means Ethereum aims to be a financial-grade settlement layer, not one that requires millisecond-level interaction.

For applications that truly need ultra-fast interactions, the solution is clear—use off-chain components or Layer 2 networks (L2s). This also explains why, even if Ethereum itself is highly scalable, L2 solutions will continue to exist and play a role rather than being completely replaced.

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MoonRocketman

· 4h ago

Ha, Vitalik is hinting that those projects claiming L1 can achieve millisecond-level latency are just bragging. The physical limit is right there; even the speed of light can't save you. --- Bandwidth > Latency. This orbital angle coefficient is calculated quite well, but the key still depends on whether L2 can truly handle this wave of fuel supply. --- "The heartbeat of the world is not the game server"—well said, but unfortunately the market is still greedily wanting both. --- Thousands of times scaling sounds great, but 2-4 seconds of latency is the real ceiling. This launch window is more limited than I expected. --- So L2 is always necessary. That's it. No more messing around. --- PeerDAS combined with ZKP is a theoretically groundbreaking solution, but when faced with the gravity of the speed of light, it directly fails. Reality is just that harsh.

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ProofOfNothing

· 01-09 14:01

I agree with the idea of prioritizing bandwidth, but to be honest, that 2-4 second delay... players of blockchain games will still have to endure the frustration.

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BlockchainBouncer

· 01-08 08:10

I agree with the idea of bandwidth priority, but to be honest, a 2-4 second delay still makes the trading experience a bit uncomfortable... But on the other hand, Vitalik's statement that "the world's heartbeat is not a game server" really woke me up; having a clear positioning is the key to success.

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Ser_Liquidated

· 01-08 08:00

I think the idea of bandwidth priority is reliable, but to be honest, it still depends on whether L2 can truly handle it. No matter how loud the hype is, it can't withstand a poor user experience.

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StrawberryIce

· 01-08 07:43

Vitalik's recent comments are quite clear-headed; prioritizing bandwidth is indeed much more reliable than hardware card latency... Speaking of which, if even the speed of light can't be managed, what else can we do, right?

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