PANews reported on February 21 that Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform that he is attempting to push forward a more ambitious plan: to build a "cypherpunk-principled, non-ugly Ethereum" extension layer on top of the existing system, achieving as close integration and high interoperability as possible with the current system. This plan will be developed gradually, while ensuring that Ethereum itself acquires the necessary cyberpunk and simplicity features implemented at the system level, including censorship resistance, zero-knowledge proof (ZK) friendliness, and consensus layer properties.
Vitalik Buterin further stated that within the next five years (or even faster with accelerated AI coding and formal verification), an open path may be established, allowing existing systems to be migrated to smart contracts written in a new system language when needed. Ethereum has previously undergone major upgrades similar to "changing a jet engine in mid-air"—such as "The Merge"—and still has the capacity to undergo approximately four more system-level changes of similar scale in the future, including state tree optimization, Lean consensus, ZK-EVM verification, and changes to the virtual machine (VM) layer.
