Vitalik predicts that within 5 years, ETH smart contracts will be converted to a new language: creating a less ugly cyberpunk Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced the development of an Ethereum layer that follows cypherpunk principles, while the FOCIL censorship-resistant proposal has been officially locked in for the Hegota upgrade at the end of the year.
(Background: V神 emphasizes “neutrality belongs to the protocol, principles belong to people”: you don’t have to agree with me to freely use Ethereum)
(Additional context: BitMine is again accumulating 45,000 ETH, controlling 3.6% of the supply! Tom Lee: ETH still holds three major structural advantages)

Table of Contents

• FOCIL: What is the cost of censorship resistance
• L2 “no longer reasonable”: Vitalik’s roadmap takes a major turn
• Ethereum Foundation’s three-track roadmap
• Clearing technical debt is never free

Yesterday, some community members criticized Ethereum for becoming too complex and losing its pure decentralization spirit due to commercialization and scalability efforts, suggesting Vitalik should rebuild a cryptopunk chain from the ground up based on RISC-V. In response, Vitalik personally replied:

In fact, I’m trying to do something more ambitious:

I want to develop a “cypherpunk principled and non-ugly Ethereum” as an add-on to the current system, in a way that’s as tightly integrated and interoperable as possible, and grow it over time.

At the same time, ensure that Ethereum itself retains those “system-level” cypherpunk attributes and simplicity (such as censorship resistance, ZK proof system friendliness, consensus properties).

Then, within five years (or perhaps sooner, considering AI coding and verification developments), if we’re willing, we will have an open path to convert existing systems into smart contracts written in a new system language.

I’m actually trying to do something even more ambitious:

Create “cypherpunk principled non-ugly ethereum” as a bolt-on to the present-day system, in a way that’s as tightly integrated and interoperable as possible, and then grow it over time, in the mean time making sure…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 20, 2026

The phrase “non-ugly” may seem understated, but in the context of Ethereum, it carries significant technical weight.

In recent years, Ethereum has accumulated substantial technical debt at the protocol layer to maintain backward compatibility and enable gradual upgrades. The EVM instruction set design dates back to 2014, the state tree structure is inefficient, and although the consensus layer shifted to PoS after The Merge, many historical burdens remain.

Vitalik used a vivid metaphor: “Ethereum once changed its jet engine during flight (The Merge). We can do about four more: state trees, streamlined consensus, ZK-EVM verification, and VM virtualization.”

FOCIL: What is the cost of censorship resistance

Vitalik’s vision is not just a pipe dream. Just days ago, during the All Core Devs call, FOCIL was officially locked in as a core proposal for the Hegota upgrade. Hegota is scheduled for late 2026, following the upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork, and is a major upgrade.

The core idea of FOCIL is to introduce a decentralized decision-making model in each block slot, ensuring that transaction inclusion is no longer solely determined by block builders. In other words, even if a block builder attempts to censor certain transactions, the FOCIL mechanism can ensure those transactions are included in the blockchain.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Jihoon Song pointed out: “As we continue to expand, the centralization of highly involved participants is increasing, and FOCIL can prevent these participants from censoring transactions.”

L2 developer Tim Clancy even called FOCIL the most important proposal for Ethereum, because it “provides Ethereum with the capability it must have to continue fulfilling its mission as the most neutral block space.”

However, controversy also arises. Privacy Pools founder Ameen Soleimani believes the benefits of FOCIL are overstated and that it creates legal risks for U.S. validators. His argument is specific: under U.S. sanctions law, validators compelled to include transactions from sanctioned addresses—even if acting in good faith—may face prosecution.

He cites Tornado Cash as an example: after Tornado Cash was sanctioned by OFAC, about 90% of validators chose not to include transactions related to that protocol. If FOCIL forces U.S. validators to include such transactions, they could face direct legal action from the U.S. government.

This presents a real dilemma. Censorship resistance is a core value of crypto, but how far can technical solutions go when this value conflicts with sovereignty and sanctions laws?

L2 “no longer reasonable”: Vitalik’s roadmap takes a major turn

Beyond FOCIL, Vitalik recently made another provocative statement about the Layer 2 roadmap. In early February, he openly stated on X: Ethereum’s original L2 scaling plan centered around rollups “no longer makes sense,” for two reasons:

First, progress toward a more decentralized L2 has been “slower and more difficult than expected.”

Second, Ethereum’s L1 itself is rapidly expanding, with gas limits expected to rise from 60M to 100M or even higher by 2026.

This marks a strategic shift in the overall technical direction. Vitalik suggests L2 should focus on providing “beyond basic scaling” value: privacy features, application-specific designs, ultra-fast transaction confirmation, and non-financial use cases, rather than just being “cheap copies” of Ethereum.

Ethereum Foundation’s three-track roadmap

Vitalik’s personal vision is converging with the Foundation’s official roadmap. On February 18, the Foundation released an update on protocol priorities for 2026, dividing core work into three tracks:

Scaling: Push gas limits above 100M, develop ZK verifier clients, and continue expanding Blob data availability.

UX Improvement: Native account abstraction and cross-L2 interoperability via the Open Intents Framework.

L1 Hardening: A new track focusing on post-quantum cryptography research, execution layer protections, censorship resistance for transactions and Blob data, and expanding test infrastructure to support faster upgrades.

With these three tracks plus two major upgrades (Glamsterdam in the first half, Hegota in the second), Ethereum in 2026 is undergoing its most intensive technical transformation since The Merge.

Clearing technical debt is never free

Vitalik’s ambition is clear: within five years (or sooner), open a migration path for existing systems to be rewritten in new languages.

But history shows that clearing technical debt always comes with short-term costs. The redefinition of L2 has already put pressure on the ecosystem; legal disputes over FOCIL could force U.S. validators into difficult choices; and proposals to replace EVM with RISC-V (which could reduce on-chain execution costs by up to 100x) would require rebuilding the entire developer toolchain.

How much patience will the market have for Ethereum’s upgrades? Only time will tell.