This is a really great primer on the Ethereum Strawmap: a 3-year plan to accomplish 5 major goals via 7 network upgrades that overhauls the Ethereum network, making it more attractive for builders (including institutions and enterprises) and more competitive with other blockchains. Everyone should read this, but I’ll summarize below (with all credit to @Snapcrackle for the writeup and the Ethereum researchers and builders like @VitalikButerin, @drakefjustin, others at the @ethereumfndn, and the countless Ethereum contributors for the mission-critical work they do every day). The Strawmap outlines five goals: 1. Accelerating Speed: Finality (the time it it takes for a transaction to become irreversible, secure, and permanently recorded) goes from minutes to seconds (via redesigned consensus) 2. Increasing Throughput: Transactions per second goes from 30 to 10,000 (via ZK Proofs) 3. Scaling Data: Enabling 10,000,000 transactions per second on L2s (via increased data capacity) 4. Post-Quantum Resilience: Implementing quantum-resistant cryptography 5. Improving Privacy: Adding privacy as a native feature It proposes seven upgrades; one every six months. All upgrades would be complete over the next three years (by mid-2029). The result: A faster, more secure, more scalable, privacy-enabled, censorship-resistant network. Of course, this is highly dependent on several factors, including mathematical and cryptographic breakthroughs. But, the Strawmap notes that "the current draft assumes human-first development” and that “AI-driven development and formal verification could significantly compress schedules." While the Strawmap is obviously ambitious, it’s hard not to be bullish with this level of clarity and focus on accelerating upgrades and scaling/building Ethereum for a future where hundreds of trillions worth of financial assets move onchain.

THIS IS MASSIVE !! Ethereum is finally solving its biggest problem. Yesterday, Vitalik unveiled a new technical roadmap to make Ethereum quantum resistant. This roadmap has identified four critical vulnerabilities in the current network and proposes replacing them with post-quantum cryptography over a four-year period. The plan involves seven planned network forks occurring roughly every six months to incrementally harden the protocol with key upgrades, including: Validator Signatures: Replacing the current BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) signatures with "lean" quantum-safe hash-based signatures. Data Availability: Migrating data storage verification from KZG (Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg) commitments to STARK-based proofs. User Account Signatures: Moving away from ECDSA (secp256k1) to quantum-resistant schemes, supported by EIP-8141 (Native Account Abstraction). Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Upgrading application-layer ZK proofs (like Groth16) to use protocol-layer recursive signatures and proof aggregation to maintain speed while adding security. If everything goes smoothly, Ethereum will be fully quantum resistant by 2029.

🚨BREAKING: CANTON ADOPTS CHAINLINK STANDARD FOR INSTITUTIONAL TOKENIZATION @Chainlink’s data standard is now live on the @CantonNetwork, bringing institutional-grade oracle infrastructure to regulated tokenized assets at scale. The integration strengthens the bridge between Wall Street and blockchain. With trusted data infrastructure now live, regulated institutions gain the tools needed to scale tokenized assets securely across global markets.

Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin, said its fourth-quarter profit jumped after crypto investors continued to flock to its stablecoin on.wsj.com/4795zV4

🔥 Vitalik Buterin stresses that there's no need for more "copy-paste" L2s or alternative L1s, given that Ethereum's L1 is scaling to provide abundant block space. His recent post highlights two core ideas: 1. Encouraging genuine innovation instead of simple copying Vitalik criticizes the creation of too many EVM L2 chains with only basic features like adding an optimistic bridge (with a 1-week delay) to Ethereum, which leads to a lack of imagination and pushes the industry into a dead end. He argues that we don't need more "copy-paste" EVM chains, especially alt L1s (alternative layer 1s), because Ethereum L1 is scaling up and will provide plenty of block space. Developers should focus on building truly novel features, such as: - Privacy - App-specific efficiency - Ultra-low latency - And other ideas not fully listed, as long as they deliver unique value rather than just focusing on scaling. 2. Requiring authenticity in "Connecting to Ethereum" Vitalik emphasizes that public branding about the level of connection to Ethereum must match the actual technical reality. Don't claim to be "Ethereum" if the connection is loose. He supports the concept of "app chains" (application-specific chains) with deep integration into Ethereum L1, such as prediction markets On the other hand, for "institutional L2s", they're not truly Ethereum. He advises promoting them honestly: Highlight the transparency value and potential synergy with Ethereum, rather than pretending to have deep connections.