Overview
- Vitalik Buterin published the Lean Ethereum strawmap in early July, laying out seven staged protocol upgrades that the roadmap frames as a three- to four-year program running through 2029.
- The plan elevates quantum resistance to a top priority and calls for staged, post-quantum cryptography rollouts that aim to replace vulnerable components such as blob signatures by 2029.
- Privacy is moved from an application-layer add-on to a native layer-1 goal, with changes proposed to the mempool, state-tree design, and virtual machine choices to support programmable privacy.
- Lean Ethereum proposes native recursive STARK verification, support for zkEVM and client-side proving, and exploration of alternate VMs (leanISA or RISC-V) to cut verification costs and boost throughput.
- Delivery risks are significant because the roadmap is a draft, the Ethereum Foundation recently reduced staff and budgets, and the upgrades require coordination across independent client teams and thousands of validators, leaving the H2 2026 Glamsterdam/Glasterdam milestone uncertain.