On September 23, 2026, on the main venue screen of the Shanghai Blockchain International Week, Vitalik Buterin appeared via remote link at the 12th Blockchain Global Summit, according to a single source. On the same day, he published a post on the X platform summarizing the core of his speech in one sentence: blockchain is no longer just a "simple ledger," but is moving towards a "cryptography-based secure computing network," according to a single source. Around this proposition, he presented a set of cold, hard numbers: the current Ethereum block time is about 12 seconds, with finality around 16 minutes; in the upcoming two years of fork upgrades, STARK technology will be fully adopted, reducing block time to approximately 4-8 seconds and finality to about 8-32 seconds, according to a single source. The real stakes behind this timeline are whether Ethereum can bring the settlement experience closer to that of traditional financial systems without sacrificing decentralization and openness, which will be the main theme questioned throughout this article.
The Moment of Switching from Ledger to Secure Computing Network
After presenting that data on block time and confirmation time, Vitalik shifted his focus to place this speed enhancement bet within a longer technological narrative. He stated in his speech, "Blockchain has evolved from a simple ledger to a cryptographic secure computing network," according to a single source. Early chains, in his writing, are clearly identified as the first phase: open, neutral, secure, but not scalable, almost completely transparent, where all user behaviors are exposed to the entire network, according to the background description of the single source. This is a world where one can only record transactions and cannot hide anything, with scalability and privacy sacrificed in the face of the most primitive trustless commitments.
The second phase then attempts to find a unified coordinate system for Ethereum's technological choices over the years: Rollup, ZK-EVM, and STARK are no longer just scalability tools but are components of the "secure computing network." Zero-knowledge proofs here serve both as an engine for compressing data and enhancing throughput, and as a curtain to obscure details and restore privacy; fully homomorphic encryption and indistinguishability obfuscation are placed on the same timeline, described as a technological tier that may enable "verifiable" to further evolve into "computable privacy," according to a single source. In this narrative, Ethereum transitions from a ledger recording transactions and contract states to an infrastructure that supports complex computations and privacy protection, where performance optimization and privacy enhancement are no longer parallel lines but the same "cryptographically secure computing network's" dual wings. This narrative shift is, in essence, Ethereum's self-declaration of upgrading from a financial ledger to a general-purpose encrypted computing platform, according to a single source.
The Vision of 4-Second Block Time: Ethereum's Sprint towards Settlement Speed
After redefining Ethereum as a "cryptographically secure computing network," Vitalik brought the topic back to a dimension that everyone could perceive—time. According to a single source, the current status he presented is: the Ethereum block time is currently about 12 seconds, and the finality time is about 16 minutes; he hopes to compress the block time to about 4-8 seconds and the finality to about 8-32 seconds in the future, according to a single source. This means that in the world of public chains, the time from a user clicking "send" to the transaction being truly irreversible will no longer be a torturous wait of several minutes, but will be compressed to a matter of seconds. This magnitude of acceleration resembles outfitting this "secure computing network" with a nearly real-time heart using engineering methods.
For users, this change has the most intuitive implication that Ethereum will no longer just be the "slow-footed" underlying settlement layer, but will begin to approach the response rhythm of everyday payments and matching systems; for DeFi and Rollup, which rely on complex settlement paths, the settlement window being shortened from several minutes to tens of seconds means that the risk exposure for cross-protocol arbitrage, settlement, and cross-Rollup capital flows is greatly compressed, potentially rewriting the entire ecosystem's fund management logic. This symbolic significance of "quasi-real-time settlement" almost brings the imaginative capacity of public chain settlements closer to the rhythm of traditional financial infrastructures, according to a single source. However, Vitalik did not provide any specific EIP numbers on stage and did not disclose how the consensus layer would be altered, only vaguely stating that this goal would be pursued in the upcoming two years of fork upgrades, according to a single source; under the premise that the technical path is not fully disclosed, this vision of acceleration is more of a declarative goal. The real question hovering over developers and validators below is: what kind of engineering methods will Ethereum use to support this magnitude of performance leap without sacrificing decentralization and security?
STARK Takes Center Stage: Ethereum's Next-Generation Underlying Proof
The moment he throw out the statement "The Ethereum fork upgrades in the next two years will fully adopt STARK technology," according to a single source, there was suddenly a rare and clear "hard anchor" in the roadmap discussion at the scene. Previously, his descriptions of the acceleration path had been deliberately vague, but once “full adoption of STARK” was written into the timeline, it elevated zero-knowledge proofs from optional optimization to a consensus-level underlying hypothesis. In the same speech, Vitalik also emphasized, "Zero-knowledge proofs are the largest technological change in the blockchain space over the past decade," pointing out that privacy transactions and scalable verification have transitioned from future plans into specific EIPs included in the Ethereum roadmap, according to a single source; with this groundwork laid, STARK is no longer just a cutting-edge cryptographic toy but is explicitly named as the technical protagonist of the upgrade pace for the next two years.
In terms of narrative, he positioned STARK as a pillar of the "secure computing network"—this type of zero-knowledge proof system excels in transparency and scalability, considered by the industry capable of compressing large-scale computations into quickly verifiable short proofs on-chain without relying on complex trust assumptions, with verification costs far lower than directly re-executing the original calculations, which is the industry's common understanding. According to a single source, Vitalik's vision is to allow such scalable verification to simultaneously serve both the Rollup and the mainnet itself: the Rollup layer uses STARK to pack a large number of transactions and state changes into a few proofs, while the mainnet takes on the role of a unified verifier, thus reducing the on-chain computational burden, theoretically providing safe buffer space for faster block times and shorter finality periods. For his earlier statement that "blockchain has evolved from a ledger to a cryptographically secure computing network," this step means that Ethereum officially enters a new engineering phase centered around STARK in terms of on-chain computation, verification, and even privacy capabilities, where each subsequent fork upgrade must clarify its security and performance ledger based on this proof mechanism.
From Zero-Knowledge to Fully Homomorphic: The Gradient of Privacy Computing Illuminated
Following this engineering mainline centered on STARK, Vitalik raised the topic to a more abstract cryptographic level. In his speech, he strung together zero-knowledge proofs, fully homomorphic encryption, and indistinguishability obfuscation into a gradient of technology: from "verifiable privacy" to "privacy computable in encrypted state," and then to "even the computation process is completely obfuscated," according to a single source. Zero-knowledge proofs are placed at the starting point of the entire narrative; he directly gave the judgment: "Zero-knowledge proofs are the largest technological change in the blockchain space over the past decade," emphasizing that privacy transactions and scalable verification have already transitioned from future plans into specific Ethereum EIPs written into the Ethereum roadmap, meaning that the critical pivot for Ethereum’s progression from "ledger" to "cryptographically secure computing network" is no longer just formulas on a whiteboard, according to a single source.
But he did not stop his perspective at zero-knowledge proofs. Vitalik mentioned that fully homomorphic encryption has already appeared in blockchain-related scenarios; although it has not yet reached large-scale adoption, it is enough to indicate that the industry is seriously exploring the possibilities of "completing calculations in encrypted states," according to a single source. At the far end is indistinguishability obfuscation—a concept that remains at the forefront of research and theoretical discussions, which he sees as a potential tool for future on-chain scenarios, but has not been packaged as Ethereum's engineering commitment in the short term, according to a single source. Along this gradient from zero-knowledge to fully homomorphic to obfuscation, what he provided resembles a long-term technical map: the forefront has already been paved with Ethereum EIPs, the middle section just marked with a few experimental paths, while the furthest obfuscated world is still just a distant silhouette illuminated by light.
AI-Assisted Formal Verification: Upgrading Ethereum's Security
Following this long-term cryptographic map, Vitalik pulled the focus back to the most pressing layer: security. According to a single source, he stated in his speech, "Artificial intelligence is accelerating the application of formal verification in blockchain and the Ethereum ecosystem," transforming what was previously more of an academic slogan into the starting point of a security paradigm upgrade. The essence of formal verification is to use mathematics to prove whether a program or protocol meets specifications; in the world of smart contracts, this means no longer relying solely on the experience and checklists of auditing firms but attempting to provide a "machine-verifiable" proof of core logic. Fact database interpretation suggests that this statement hints at a transition in the Ethereum ecosystem's security verification methods from a model primarily based on human auditing to a systematic verification assisted by AI, according to a single source.
In the same speech, he described Ethereum's ultimate goal as a "cryptographically secure computing network," within which AI and formal verification are placed at the central position of this narrative, according to a single source. In the past, formal verification was more limited to a few key contracts and protocol layer components; now, as protocol complexity continues to increase with technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and STARK, purely manual efforts are nearly impossible to completely cover all state spaces, thereby amplifying the significance of AI's involvement in verification: it does not replace humans but frees them from mechanical enumeration and proof writing, shifting them toward defining specifications and reviewing anomalies. In this way, from Layer 1 protocols to layer applications utilizing STARK, theoretically, all can be integrated into the same "verifiable" security framework—cryptography provides proof, AI accelerates formal verification, and Ethereum attempts to shape itself into a faster, more secure, and more verifiable computing infrastructure, according to a single source.
Countdown of Two Years: The Ultimate Inquiry of Decentralization and High Performance
The main thread pulled from this remote speech in Shanghai is a two-year roadmap centered on STARK, aimed at speeding up and enhancing privacy: pulling today’s Ethereum, with about 12 seconds block time and about 16 minutes final confirmation, toward the target range of 4-8 seconds block time and 8-32 seconds final confirmation, according to a single source, completing the transition from "ledger" to "cryptographically secure computing network." The real challenge lies not in the vision but in the cost—when block and final confirmation times are compressed to this magnitude, how to maintain node participation thresholds, avoid increasing centralization risks, and not sacrifice security boundaries in pursuit of experience will plunge the entire community into a long-term institutional and engineering game. What Vitalik provided was merely an abstract outline of "the upcoming two years of fork upgrades will fully adopt STARK," without fork names, specific plans, or timelines detailed to months or quarters, according to a single source; the technical paths, governance consensus, and ecological cooperation all hang in uncertainty. The next two years will thus become a key window for Ethereum to validate whether "high performance and high security can coexist," as well as a period for other public chains to recalibrate their narrative coordinates and compare differentiated routes, while this ultimate inquiry regarding decentralization and high performance will be partially answered within this window.
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