Buterin lays out conditions for a “quantum-safe, ossifiable” Ethereum

In Buterin’s framing, the network has to be mature enough that it doesn’t depend on nonstop hard forks or decisions made by a small group. Instead, it should run on predictable rules that can outlast shifts in teams, trends, and politics.

Among the prerequisites he points to are a move to cryptography that can withstand quantum attacks, along with a more durable network architecture.

He also lists several concrete upgrades:

• full account abstraction
• scaling changes built around ZK verification of execution
• data infrastructure improvements (including approaches like PeerDAS)
• a fair gas model
• resilient economic incentives under proof of stake
• block-building mechanisms designed to reduce censorship risk.

Buterin stresses that the goal is to make sure Ethereum’s long-term value isn’t tied to “must-have” features that still aren’t working yet. If that holds, experimentation can move to L2s, wallets, and apps, while L1 stays as stable as possible as a settlement and finality layer.

He has framed this contrast before. At Devconnect in Argentina, Buterin compared Ethereum’s design goals to the collapse of FTX, calling the failed exchange an example of a system where users had to trust a centralized player blindly. A well-designed blockchain, he argued, “can’t be evil,” because the rules are enforced in code rather than by a single point of control.

Last week, he took a similar line on decentralized stablecoins. In his view, many designs remain exposed due to weak oracles, governance attacks, and skewed incentives created by staking yields.