Vitalik Buterin maps Ethereum's post-Hegotá cryptographic future

Buterin said Hegotá could be Ethereum's last "normal" fork before development shifts toward new technologies. He said Hegotá is planned for 2027. He described it as likely to be the final upgrade with features recognizable to someone familiar with Ethereum in 2015. Buterin said PeerDAS allows nodes to verify data availability by sampling portions of data instead of downloading everything. He said PeerDAS marked the start of Ethereum's transition beyond being only a blockchain. Buterin described the network's future as a "cryptographic world computer." He said this architecture would combine blockchains with cryptographic verification, privacy and decentralized offchain components. The transition could move more computation offchain while the base layer verifies results, settles transactions and preserves access to shared onchain state. The technologies could include recursive STARKs. They could include automated formal verification. They could include optimized consensus. They could include quantum-safe cryptography. Ethereum researcher Barnabé Monnot said moving computation offchain and proving the results onchain could reduce the work required from the network. Monnot said this could enable lighter nodes. He argued that important records used by applications should remain directly onchain. He said that would let users see what is happening and interact with applications without relying on external servers or intermediaries. Pseudonymous commentator Cryptographic said the architecture could expand what decentralized finance applications can do. Cryptographic said more complex computation could happen outside smart contracts while Ethereum verifies that resulting transactions comply with protocol rules. Cryptographic cited DeFi lending as an example. The commentator said collateral analysis, liquidation routing or matching borrowers and lenders could happen offchain before Ethereum verifies and settles the outcome. Crypto lawyer Gabriel Shapiro questioned how much demand exists for proof-based systems compared with traditional trust-based models. Shapiro said many existing financial services rely on reputation, regulation and legal enforcement rather than continuous cryptographic verification.