Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has reaffirmed the network’s scaling trajectory, highlighting key developments aimed at improving Layer 1 (L1) efficiency and Layer 2 (L2) capacity. 

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin praised the ongoing work on Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4444, statelessness, and client efficiency upgrades—critical components that will facilitate higher gas limits without compromising decentralization.

A key milestone in Ethereum’s scaling roadmap is the upcoming Pectra upgrade, expected to go live in March. The upgrade will increase the blob target from 3 to 6, effectively doubling L2 throughput. This change directly benefits rollups, Ethereum’s dominant L2 scaling solution, by allowing more data to be processed per block.

Buterin also suggested an alternative governance mechanism for the blob target, proposing that it be adjusted dynamically through staker voting. This approach, he argued, would enable Ethereum to scale in response to technological improvements without relying on hard forks.

EIP-4444, which introduces history expiry, is one of the initiatives aimed at making Ethereum nodes more lightweight by removing the need to store old transaction data indefinitely. Another significant development is a new binary tree EIP, which contributes to Ethereum’s statelessness goal, reducing reliance on persistent state storage and improving validator efficiency.