TLDR
- The “Strawmap” development plan aims to slash Ethereum’s block times from 12 seconds down to just 2 seconds within four years
- Finality times will plummet from roughly 16 minutes to a mere 6–16 seconds
- Hash-based, quantum-resistant cryptography will be integrated into the protocol
- Ethereum developers have scheduled seven major protocol upgrades, approximately every half-year
- Performance targets include achieving 10,000 TPS on the base layer and 10 million TPS across Layer 2 solutions
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has unveiled specifics regarding a comprehensive four-year development blueprint for the network. This strategic plan centers on the “Strawmap,” a document released by the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol team.
Originally created as an internal planning resource in January 2026, the Strawmap has now been made public. This living document presents one potential trajectory for Ethereum’s core protocol evolution over the coming decade.
According to Buterin, the development strategy operates along two largely separate pathways. The first pathway concentrates on accelerating block creation, while the second prioritizes reducing transaction finality times.
At present, Ethereum generates a new block approximately every 12 seconds. The development plan aims to progressively reduce this interval to just 2 seconds, following incremental steps based on a square-root-of-two pattern: from 12 to 8, then 6, then 4, and finally 2 seconds.
Buterin explained that enhanced peer-to-peer (p2p) networking protocols between Ethereum nodes will enable these shorter block intervals without compromising network security or decentralization.
Currently, transaction finality requires approximately 16 minutes. The new roadmap establishes an ambitious target of reducing this to somewhere between 6 and 16 seconds.
Quantum Resistance Built Into the Plan
Achieving these dramatically faster finality times will require Ethereum to transition from its existing consensus mechanism to a streamlined alternative. This redesigned system will incorporate post-quantum cryptographic methods based on hash functions.
Buterin characterized these modifications as a “very invasive set of changes.” The strategy involves pairing the most significant upgrades in each development track with the implementation of quantum-resistant signature schemes.
An interesting consequence of this phased implementation is that block production could gain quantum protection ahead of the finality mechanism. Buterin noted that in the unlikely event quantum computers became a sudden threat, the network would continue producing blocks even though finality guarantees would temporarily cease.
Throughput and Privacy Goals
Beyond speed and security, the Strawmap establishes ambitious benchmarks for transaction capacity and user privacy. The Layer 1 objective calls for supporting 10,000 transactions per second, leveraging zero-knowledge proofs with Ethereum Virtual Machines capable of real-time verification.
For Layer 2 scaling solutions built atop Ethereum, the target reaches an impressive 10 million transactions per second, enabled through advanced data availability sampling techniques.
The development plan additionally outlines objectives for private ETH transfers, which would introduce native privacy features as a core network capability.
Seven major protocol upgrades are scheduled across the four-year timeframe, with approximately six-month intervals between each fork. Two specific upgrades — Glamsterdam and Hegotá — have already been confirmed for deployment later in 2026.
The Ethereum Foundation emphasizes that the Strawmap remains a dynamic document. The team has committed to refreshing the roadmap at minimum once per quarter, incorporating ongoing research findings and community input as development progresses.
