The Ethereum Foundation has announced that it’s targeting faster transactions, smarter wallets, higher cross-chain interoperability and quantum-resilient security as its “protocol priorities” in 2026.
In a press release released on Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation outlined several goals, including continuing to scale the gas limit – the utmost amount of computational work a block can handle – “toward and beyond” 100 million, a significant topic of dialogue within the Ethereum community in 2025.
Source: Ethereum Foundation
Some members of the Ethereum community expect the gas limit to be increased significantly this 12 months. In November, Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano said that the goal of significantly increasing Ethereum's gas limit to 180 million in 2026 was a baseline, not a best-case scenario.
“Post-quantum readiness” is a spotlight for Ethereum
The foundation highlighted the modernization of the Glamsterdam network, planned for the primary half of 2026, as a significant priority. It also emphasized long-term post-quantum readiness as a part of its broader security initiative.
On January 24, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake said in an X post that the inspiration had “formed a brand new Post-Quantum (PQ) team.”
“Today marks a turning point within the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term quantum strategy,” Drake said.
The Ethereum Foundation said it can also deal with improving user experience in 2026, with a deal with improving smart wallets through native account abstraction and enabling smoother interactions between blockchains through interoperability.
“The goal stays seamless, trust-minimized cross-L2 interactions, and we’re getting closer every single day. Continued progress in faster L1 confirmations and shorter L2 settlement times directly supports this.”
The foundation said 2025 was one among the “most efficient years”, citing two major grid upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, and the municipality's increase within the gas limit from 30 million to 60 million between upgrades, for the primary time since 2021.
Buterin's big plans for Ethereum and AI
Mario Havel of the Ethereum Foundation said in an X post on Wednesday: “It took us some time to get the announcement out because we have now prepared the most important curriculum thus far.”
This comes just days after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled his latest vision for Ethereum's interface with artificial intelligence on February 10. Buterin explained that he sees the 2 working together to enhance markets, financial security and human agency.
Buterin said his broader vision for the long run of AI is to empower humans reasonably than replace them, although he said the near-term perspective includes rather more “extraordinary” ideas.
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