The Ethereum Foundation just released a roadmap that gives the impression that it is building for the next decade and will not survive the current quarter.
The document, called a “straw map” and published Wednesday by EF researcher Justin Drake, outlines a plan for seven hard forks through 2029. Hard forks are network-wide software upgrades where every node must be updated or be left behind, making them the highest-stakes type of change Ethereum can make.
Introducing Strawmap, a roadmap to Strawman by EF Protocol.
Believe in something. Believe in an Ethereum straw card.
Who is it for?
The document, available on Strawmap[.]org, is intended for advanced readers. It is a dense and technical resource intended primarily for researchers,… pic.twitter.com/gIZh5I8Not
– Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) February 25, 2026
The plan is organized around five goals that the team describes as “north stars.” These include faster Layer 1 with transaction finality in seconds; significantly higher Layer 1 throughput, capable of around 10,000 transactions per second (called “gigagas” scale); Layer 2 networks reaching “teragas” throughput levels, or around 10 million TPS; post-quantum cryptography; and built-in privacy through protected ETH transfers.
L1 refers to the base layer of Ethereum – the main blockchain itself. L2s are networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism that run on Ethereum, processing transactions at a lower cost before reinstalling them on L1. “Gigagas” and “teragas” describe throughput targets measured in gas, Ethereum’s unit of computing work.
Think of gas like fuel. Currently, the network burns a limited amount per second. The roadmap aims to increase this figure by several orders of magnitude, pushing L1 to handle 10,000 transactions per second and giving L2s the data bandwidth to reach 10 million.
Purpose is where things become most tangible. When a transaction is “final” on Ethereum, it means that the network has collectively agreed that it has occurred and cannot be undone.
Today, this process takes about 16 minutes. The roadmap envisions reducing this time to just 8 seconds through a new consensus mechanism called Minimmit, a type of algorithm that reaches agreement in a single round of voting rather than the multiple rounds used today.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called the document “very important” and explained the final improvements in detail.
Ethereum’s slot time, the fixed interval at which the network produces new blocks, is currently 12 seconds. The plan would gradually reduce this delay by 8, 6, 4, and potentially up to 2 seconds, with each reduction based on confidence in the security of the network.
Buterin compared the approach to the way Ethereum already adjusts other network parameters, treating slot time as a dial to be turned rather than a fixed number.
A very important document. Let’s go through this “goal” one by one. We will start with quick slots and a quick finality.
I expect we will gradually reduce the time spent on slots, for example. I like the formula “sqrt(2) at a time” (12 -> 8 -> 6 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2, although the last two… https://t.co/ni9wIF2BgJ
– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 25, 2026
The overall change in architecture, Buterin said, amounts to a “ship of Theseus” style rebuild where individual components of Ethereum consensus are replaced one by one until the entire system is new, without a single upgrade being too disruptive.
Quantum considerations and privacy-focused infrastructure
The post-quantum surge stands out given the timing. Post-quantum cryptography means replacing the calculations that secure the network today with systems that would remain unbreakable even if quantum computers reached sufficient scale. Strategy’s Michael Saylor dismissed quantum threats to Bitcoin earlier this month, estimating that it would be more than a decade away.
The Ethereum roadmap treats it as a concrete engineering problem with a specific fork target, not as a hypothesis. The plan would introduce hash-based signatures, a cryptographic approach that does not rely on the mathematical problems that quantum computers are designed to solve.
Protected transfers, the goal of privacy, would allow ETH to be sent without the transaction details being publicly visible on the blockchain. Today, every transfer on Ethereum is completely transparent, meaning everyone can see how much was sent, from where and to whom. This is a feature for auditors but a problem for users who don’t want their financial activity exposed.
The gap between the stated ambition and the current market reading on ether could not be wider. The question remains open as we approach the second half of 2026: whether this gap will close thanks to the roadmap which will drive up prices or whether prices will drive sentiment down further.
