A decade of debate reaches a critical turning point: the true meaning of Ethereum's three-dilemma predicament

At the beginning of 2026, when Vitalik Buterin published new insights earlier this month, a “physical law” that had hung over Ethereum developers for a full decade finally seemed to be loosening. How profound is the significance of this turning point? It’s not just a technical shift; it redefines the entire industry’s understanding of blockchain limits.

Over the past ten years, the “trilemma” has been like an inescapable curse for every public chain—decentralization, security, and scalability—at most, two can be achieved simultaneously. However, looking back from 2026, this once deemed insurmountable problem is gradually transforming into a manageable technical challenge through a series of engineering practices.

From Theoretical Dilemma to Engineering Breakthrough

To understand the significance of this shift, we need to examine why this dilemma has persisted for so long.

The so-called trilemma operates like an eternal seesaw—decentralization implies low barriers to entry, broad participation, and trustless single points; security means the system can withstand attacks while maintaining consistency; scalability demands high throughput, low latency, and a good user experience. On the surface, these three are mutually exclusive—improving throughput often requires higher hardware thresholds or centralized coordination; reducing node burdens may weaken security assumptions; insisting on extreme decentralization makes high performance difficult to achieve.

Over the past decade, different public chains like EOS, Polkadot, Cosmos, Solana, Sui, and Aptos have offered various solutions, but nearly all scalability approaches have fallen into the same trap—requiring trade-offs among the three. It seemed like a dead end, and the industry has been oscillating within this “monolithic blockchain” logic.

But the key turning point is here: Starting in 2020, Ethereum abandoned the monolithic mindset and adopted a modular, multi-layer architecture. This choice means it no longer attempts to solve the trilemma on a single chain but instead breaks the constraints through layered division of labor.

How Multiple Technical Lines Achieve Divide and Conquer

This breakthrough is built on multiple technical initiatives that Ethereum has advanced over the past five years.

First is PeerDAS, which addresses data availability bottlenecks. Traditional blockchains require each full node to download and verify all data, limiting decentralization and scalability. PeerDAS changes this game—nodes no longer need to download entire blocks but verify data availability via probabilistic sampling. After encoding and splitting block data, nodes randomly sample parts to verify; if data is hidden or withheld, the probability of sampling failure rapidly increases. This allows throughput to be significantly improved while still enabling ordinary nodes to participate in validation—it achieves scalability by changing the verification method, not by sacrificing decentralization.

Importantly, Vitalik emphasizes that PeerDAS is no longer just a theoretical concept but a real system component deployed in practice.

Second is zkEVM, which brings a revolution in computational verification. In traditional blockchains, each node must re-execute all transactions to validate a block. zkEVM changes this with zero-knowledge proofs—after executing a block, it produces a cryptographic proof that others can verify without re-running transactions. This offers three core advantages: dramatically faster validation (verifying the proof instead of re-executing transactions), greatly reduced load on full nodes (lightweight operation), and enhanced security (ZK proofs of state have higher tamper resistance than optimistic rollups).

Recently, the Ethereum Foundation officially released the L1 zkEVM instant proof standard, marking the first time ZK technology has been incorporated into the mainnet-level official plans. This shift signifies Ethereum moving from an era of “re-computation” to one of “proof verification.” According to EF’s technical roadmap, block proof latency is targeted at under 10 seconds, with individual zk proofs less than 300KB, using 128-bit security.

Additionally, there is a broader layout around the 2030 roadmap. This includes improving Blob throughput, restructuring state models, adjusting gas limits, and other multi-dimensional improvements. These are not isolated upgrades but are explicitly designed to stack and complement each other as modules. This precisely reflects Ethereum’s “engineering attitude”—not seeking a magical fix at a single point, but redistributing costs and risks through layered architecture adjustments.

What the End-State in 2030 Means

If these technological initiatives continue to advance, what will Ethereum look like before 2030? Vitalik provides a relatively clear timeline:

2026: With improvements in execution layers and mechanisms like ePBS, gas limits not relying on zkEVM can be increased first, creating conditions for broader zkEVM node operation.

2026-2028: Adjustments around gas pricing, state structure, and execution load enable the system to operate securely under higher loads.

2027-2030: zkEVM gradually becomes the primary method for block validation; gas limits may further increase, with the long-term ideal of more decentralized block production.

Combining the latest roadmap, we see three key features of Ethereum in 2030:

A minimal L1: The L1 becomes a stable, neutral base layer responsible only for data availability and settlement proofs, not handling complex application logic. What does this mean? It ensures maximum security through streamlined functions.

A thriving interconnected L2 ecosystem: Through interoperability layers and fast confirmation rules, fragmented L2s are seamlessly stitched together, providing users with the perception of no chain—just hundreds of thousands of TPS.

Extremely low participation barriers: Thanks to mature state processing and light client technology, even smartphones can participate in validation. The deeper implication is that decentralization is no longer a luxury but a fundamental infrastructure.

Interestingly, Vitalik also emphasizes a unique evaluation standard—“exit test.” It means that even if all service providers disappear or are attacked, DApps can still run, and user assets remain safe. This test shifts the ultimate evaluation of the trilemma from speed and experience back to Ethereum’s core promise—whether the system remains trustworthy in the worst case, without relying on single points.

Why This Shift Is Critical

Decades of intense debate over the trilemma may eventually be seen as a necessary phase of development. Just as before the invention of the automobile, people seriously discussed “how horse-drawn carriages can balance speed, safety, and load capacity”—a seemingly impossible challenge.

The true significance of this shift is: Ethereum is not making painful trade-offs among three difficult problems but constructing a digital infrastructure that belongs to everyone, is extremely secure, and can support global finance—through PeerDAS, zkEVM, and clever economic mechanisms.

Every step forward in this direction is a step beyond the “trilemma” era. This turning point signifies that the very concept of difficulty is being redefined.