Ethereum Foundation: Defining the next decade with "lean Ethereum"

Ethereum's "Lean Ethereum" Vision: On its 10th anniversary, Ethereum introduced the "Lean Ethereum" vision, focusing on extreme performance while maintaining security and decentralization. Next-gen cryptography is key to balancing these goals.
Fortress Mode (Defense): Ethereum aims to be resilient against threats like nation-state attacks and quantum computing, ensuring 100% uptime and safeguarding trillions in assets long-term.
Beast Mode (Offense): The Ethereum Foundation prioritizes scaling L1 (10,000 TPS) and L2 (1,000,000 TPS) using tools like real-time zkVMs and Data Availability Sampling (DAS), proving scalability and decentralization aren’t mutually exclusive.
Lean Upgrades: Comprehensive L1 improvements include:
- Lean Consensus: Sub-second finality for the Beacon Chain.
- Lean Data: Post-quantum blocks and fine-grained block sizes.
- Lean Execution: A minimalist, SNARK-friendly EVM 2.0 (possibly RISC-V-based).
Lean Cryptography: Hash-based cryptography unifies SNARK growth and quantum resistance, upgrading signatures, commitments, and zkVMs across layers.
Lean as Craftsmanship: The vision transcends tech, embracing minimalism, modularity, and formal verification as an art form—akin to "God of Sushi" precision.
Legacy: Lean Ethereum pledges perpetual sustainability, uncompromising scalability, and a foundation worthy of future users, cementing Ethereum’s role in the Internet of Value.

Author: Justin Drake

Translated by: BitpushNews

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of Ethereum. Today, we officially launched the "Lean Ethereum" vision—my personal mission statement for the next decade.

We stand at the dawn of a new era. Millions of transactions per second (TPS), the threat of quantum computing... How can Ethereum pursue extreme performance while maintaining security and decentralization?

The core answer lies in: next-generation cryptography will become a key weapon in both offense and defense.

Disclaimer: This article is Drake's personal opinion and intended for a general audience. A more in-depth technical analysis of hash-based post-quantum signatures and SNARKs will be published later. We look forward to and welcome diverse perspectives from the protocol layer, the Ethereum Foundation, and community members; this will only make us stronger.

Defense Mode—Fortress Mode

Ethereum is unique. 100% uptime since the genesis block, unparalleled client diversity, and $130 billion in economic security (35.7 million staked ETH x $3,700 per token)—perhaps soon to reach $1 trillion.

Ethereum is becoming the cornerstone of the Internet of Value, safeguarding trillions of dollars in assets for decades, even centuries. It must be resilient against any threat: nation-state attacks, quantum computers… We call this Fortress Mode. As long as the internet exists, Ethereum exists. When the world is online, the world is on-chain.

Offensive Mode—Beast Mode

Ethereum is ambitious. "Scaling L1 and scaling blocks" has become a strategic priority for the Ethereum Foundation's protocol group. Low-hanging fruit for performance improvements will be realized in the next 6-12 months.

The long-term goal? Gigagas/second for L1 and teragas/second for L2. We call this Beast Mode.

L1 Gigagas/second: 10,000 TPS, ambitious vertical scalability
L2 Trillion Gas/second: 1,000,000 TPS, ambitious horizontal scalability

Is scalability and decentralization mutually exclusive? Not necessarily. We have mastered the key mathematical tools:

Real-time zkVMs for lean execution
Data Availability Sampling (DAS) for lean data

Even better: full-chain verification is available from any browser, wallet, or phone.

Lean Upgrade

The Lean Ethereum proposal covers comprehensive upgrades to all three L1 sublayers:

Lean Consensus (Beacon Chain 2.0): Enhanced security and decentralization, achieving sub-second finality (formerly known as "Beam Chain")
Lean Data (Blockchain 2.0): Post-quantum data blocks, support for fine-grained block sizes, and a calldata-like development experience
Lean Execution (EVM 2.0): A minimalist and SNARK-friendly instruction set (possibly using the RISC-V architecture) that improves performance while maintaining EVM compatibility and network effects

The Consensus Layer (CL), Data Layer (DL), and Execution Layer (EL) have all been rebuilt from first principles to achieve both Fortress and Beast modes. The goal is to achieve exponential performance improvements while ensuring uncompromising continuity, ultimate security, and ultimate simplicity.

Lean Cryptography

Hash-based cryptography is becoming the ideal foundation for Lean Ethereum, providing a unified solution for two major trends:

The explosive growth of SNARK technology
The looming threat of quantum computing

Imagine using the simplest cryptographic building block—the hash function—to single-handedly support the entire Layer 1 blockchain:

CL: Hash Aggregate Signatures Upgraded to BLS Signatures
DL: Hash DAS Commitments Upgraded to KZG Commitments
EL: Hash Live ZkVMs Upgraded to EVM Re-execution

Lean CL, Lean DL, and Lean EL each hold a unique cryptographic gem.

Lean Process

Lean Ethereum is more than just a blueprint for strengthening and scaling Ethereum. It transcends security hardening, decentralization, and cutting-edge cryptography, becoming an aesthetic pursuit, an art form, and a standard of craftsmanship. It's like Jiro Ono's craftsman spirit in "God of Sushi"—never miss a step if you can go the extra mile.

Minimalism, modularity, encapsulated complexity, formal verification, provable security, provable optimality—these subtle yet crucial technical considerations will be elaborated in a subsequent article on post-quantum cryptography.

Lean Legacy

After a glorious decade, Lean Ethereum is a generation's pledge: to ensure Ethereum's perpetual sustainability under all circumstances; to achieve uncompromising scalability; and to make it worthy of future users.

This is about legacy. We are builders, we are evangelists, we are Ethereum.