Ethereum Foundation researchers publish ‘strawmap’ outlining seven forks through 2029

Ethereum Foundation researchers published a technical draft roadmap on Wednesday, projecting seven network upgrades through the end of the decade. The document targets reductions in slot times and finality periods, while introducing features such as native shielded transfers.

The “strawmap,” announced by researcher Justin Drake, extends beyond the immediate scope of All Core Devs discussions to map dependencies for upgrades through 2029, according to an X post. 

The document originated as a discussion starter at an Ethereum Foundation workshop in January 2026, according to Drake’s announcement. The name combines “strawman” and “roadmap,” a designation Drake said acknowledges the impossibility of an official roadmap reflecting all stakeholders in a decentralized ecosystem. The strawmap is maintained by the EF Architecture team and will receive quarterly updates, with the latest revision date noted on the document.

Drake stated the strawmap identifies five primary technical objectives categorized as “north stars.” These include “fast L1,” targeting short slots and finality in seconds; “gigagas L1,” aiming for 1 gigagas per second — equivalent to 10,000 transactions per second — via zkEVMs and real-time proving; and “teragas L2,” targeting 1 gigabyte per second of data bandwidth, or 10 million transactions per second, through data availability sampling.

The plan also prioritizes a “Post-Quantum L1” utilizing hash-based cryptography and a “Private L1” featuring shielded ETH transfers to provide “first-class” privacy on the base layer.

Drake stated that the roadmap projects a 2029 completion for the outlined seven forks, though he noted that AI-driven development or formal verification could compress this timeline.

Buterin outlines incremental timeline for faster blocks

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin described the strawmap as a “very important document” in an X post on Wednesday, providing detailed commentary on its technical targets. 

Buterin said he expects slot times, the interval for proposing new blocks, to decrease incrementally from the current 12 seconds through a progression of 8, 6, 4, 3, and potentially 2 seconds, noting the final steps depend on heavy research.

The Ethereum co-founder also outlined a parallel reduction in finality time, which is the period after which blocks cannot be reversed, from the current 16 minutes to as low as 6-16 seconds. One possible trajectory he detailed shows finality dropping to 10 minutes and 40 seconds with 8-second slots, then to 6 minutes and 24 seconds with one-epoch finality, followed by 1 minute and 12 seconds, 48 seconds, 16 seconds, and ultimately 8 seconds with aggressive parameters.

The plan introduces these changes piece by piece, Buterin said, bundling larger steps with a switch to post-quantum hash-based signatures and a maximally STARK-friendly hash. Researchers are evaluating three responses to recent Poseidon2 attacks: increasing round counts, returning to Poseidon1, or using BLAKE3, according to his post.

Buterin did not provide a deployment schedule in the post, but described the strawmap as a structured sequence of technical goals tied to slot reductions, finality redesign, and cryptographic upgrades.

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