Vitalik Buterin Details Roadmap for Faster and Quantum Safe Ethereum

TLDR

• Slot times may fall from 12 seconds to as low as 2 seconds
• Finality could drop from 16 minutes to under 16 seconds
• Roadmap spans seven forks planned through 2029
• Quantum resistant signatures planned alongside major upgrades

Ethereum could see block times fall to two seconds and finality reduced to seconds under a new four year roadmap. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin explained the plan while discussing the Ethereum Foundation’s Strawmap. The roadmap sets out a path toward faster performance and quantum resistant security.

Buterin said slot time reductions would happen in gradual steps. He also described plans to redesign finality using a simpler system. The changes would be introduced across several forks through the end of the decade.

Gradual Slot Reductions and Network Upgrades

Ethereum produces blocks every 12 seconds, but the roadmap proposes gradual slot reductions. Buterin outlined a square root of two patterns, lowering times from 12 to 8, 6, 4, and possibly 2 seconds. He said slot length will stay flexible, with changes made only when stable, as most upgrades do not depend on slot duration.

Network communication upgrades are included in the plan. Raul Jordan developed an optimized peer to peer layer using erasure coding to balance bandwidth and latency. Blocks are split into pieces instead of sent in full. Nodes rebuild blocks from partial data, reducing duplication while keeping redundancy. Tests show faster propagation, supporting shorter slots without weakening security.

Buterin said some new features affect latency limits. Proposals like ePBS and FOCIL add more complex slot structures, reducing the safe latency margin. Research aims to improve pipelining and cut overhead. Another proposal would select 256 to 1,024 attesters per slot, removing signature aggregation and shortening processing time to support faster slots.

Finality Targeted to Fall Below One Minute

Ethereum finality now takes about 16 minutes on average. This is based on 12 second slots and 32 slot epochs. The roadmap aims to separate slot production from finality logic. This allows each part to evolve independently. The long term goal is a one round finality system based on a Minimum style algorithm. 

Under this model, finality could fall to between 6 and 16 seconds. Buterin described the transition as complex but manageable through staged upgrades. An intermediate step called one epoch finality would reduce confirmation time. Future changes could shorten epochs and slots together. 

One possible path would move from minutes to around one minute, then to under 20 seconds. Buterin said the largest changes may coincide with a shift in cryptography. Ethereum plans to adopt post quantum hash based signatures. The network may also move to more prover friendly hash functions.

Quantum Resistance and Long Term Fork Plan

The Strawmap covers seven forks through 2029. Forks are expected about every six months. Some names, such as Glamsterdam and Hegotá, are already set. One outcome of the staged approach is partial quantum resistance. Slot production could become quantum resistant before finality does. If quantum computers emerge suddenly, finality guarantees could weaken. 

However, block production could continue. Buterin said the broader aim is a cleaner and simpler consensus model. The roadmap also targets higher throughput and better privacy. These goals include gigagas level execution and teragas level data scaling. The document is presented as a coordination tool rather than a fixed plan. 

It reflects ongoing research and community debate. Buterin explained that rough consensus will guide each stage. The four year roadmap frames Ethereum’s shift toward faster performance and quantum resistant design. Slot times and finality are expected to decline step by step. Each fork will introduce changes while maintaining network stability.

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