Following recent leadership changes earlier this year, the Ethereum Foundation is implementing development strategies to address the challenges of core protocol efficiency and user experience.
Co-Enforcement Director Tomasz Stańczak outlined the updated focus area in the latest X’s official statement, highlighting that the shift is improving short-term usability while enhancing Ethereum’s long-term scalability.
Protocol upgrades and fixed roles for Vitalik Buterin
Stańczak described the discussion surrounding the Ethereum basic layer roadmap as extensive and community-driven, saying that the change is designed to sharpen the focus between researchers and core developers. Stańczak wrote:
Our discussion of the Layer 1 Scaling Roadmap is extensive, and feedback so far suggests that the community appreciates our ambitions. Turning that ambition into reality now relies on the focus of the core development team and researchers.
As part of that strategic transition, the Ethereum Foundation aims to give Vitalik Buterin time to focus on advanced research rather than daily operational monitoring.
“We aimed to free up more time for Vitalik’s research and exploration, among other things,” Stańczak said, adding that Buterin’s recent writings on topics such as RISC-V and ZKVMS have potentially helped to draw attention to “transforming technologies.”
According to Stańczak, these insights have played a key role in re-aligning the Ethereum community around long-term priorities, including privacy, modularity and distributed infrastructure.
Stańczak has made it clear that Buterin’s proposal is not a duty, but a starting point for community-driven exploration.
Vitalik’s proposals always have weight, but aim to launch conversations and promote progress in challenging areas of research.
He also emphasized the importance of giving other researchers the same freedom, and highlighted the ongoing work of contributors such as Justin Drake and Tantaard Feist.
whole. The foundation’s research direction is currently directed towards short-term outcomes, including improved Layer-1 scaling, enhanced Layer-2 integration, and in particular “seamless” user experiences with future upgrades such as Pektra, Fusaka and Gramasterdam.
RISC-V proposals and developer flexibility
The Foundation also evaluates the feasibility of a transition from Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to a more modern execution environment equipped with RISC-V.
This proposal, first introduced by Buterin, suggests that RISC-V can streamline implementation, improve efficiency, and simplify implementation of zero-knowledge proofs.
“We are currently looking for ways to propose projects that look three to five years away,” Stańczak points out, referring to the potential for acceleration in next-generation implementation and development of consensus layers.
The advantages of RISC-V include wider language compatibility and the possibility of backward compatibility with existing EVM contracts. Developers can use Solidity and Vyper, or expand to languages like Rust.
Additionally, RISC-V can improve validator performance through hardware-level customization, while maintaining core Ethereum features such as account model and contract interaction.
As research and experiments continued, Stańczak emphasized the importance of community opinion. “Ethereum researchers often recognize the exploratory nature of their posts and suggestions. The focus remains essential.”
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