Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin claims Ethereum has “solved” one in all the crypto space’s biggest challenges: the blockchain trilemma.
In an X post on Saturday, Buterin highlighted the potential of Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) and Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (zkEVMs), noting that these two upgrades make Ethereum “a fundamentally latest and more powerful form of decentralized network.”
“Now, Ethereum with PeerDAS (2025) and ZK-EVMs (expect small parts of the network to make use of it in 2026), we get: decentralized, consensus and high bandwidth,” he said, adding:
“The trilemma has been solved – not on paper, but with live running code, half of which (data availability sampling) *on mainnet today* and the opposite half (ZK-EVMs) *today in production quality based on performance* – security is what stays.” Source: Vitalik Buterin
PeerDAS is a scalability improvement introduced as a part of the Fusaka upgrade in December that permits Ethereum to process significantly more data.
Meanwhile, zkEVMs, which have been around for a while, are virtual machines which are compatible with each ZK proofs and the prevailing Ethereum virtual machine.
The Ethereum co-founder said that zkEVMs are still within the “alpha stage” as they’re performance-ready but require additional security improvements. He has set a four-year timeline for the complete deployment of zkEVMs in Ethereum.
Buterin said Ethereum's long-standing efforts to balance decentralization, security and scalability might be complete once these upgrades are fully rolled out
“Over the subsequent 4 years or so, expect the complete extent of this vision to be realized: *In 2026, large non-ZKEVM dependent gas limits might be increased resulting from BALs and ePBS, and we’ll see the primary opportunities to operate a ZKEVM node*,” he said.
“In 2026-28, gas repricing, changes to state structure, exec payload in blobs, and other adjustments might be made to make higher gas limits secure. * In 2027-30, gas limits might be increased significantly as ZKEVM becomes the first option to validate blocks on the network,” he added.
Ethereum took 10 years to resolve the trilemma
Buterin said it took ten years of labor to get Ethereum to the extent that might solve the trilemma, pointing to his first contribution to solving data availability issues in April 2017.
“It’s been a 10-year journey […] however it’s finally here,” he said.
The blockchain trilemma refers back to the complexity of constructing a blockchain network that concurrently achieves sufficient decentralization, security and scalability without one pillar hindering the opposite.
In general, most blockchains are forced to prioritize one or two of those pillars, similar to speed and security, of their initial stages, while progressively working to balance all three.
In his post, Buterin pointed to Bitcoin for example, noting that the network is “highly decentralized” and designed to be secure, but suffers from scalability issues.
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