Good evening,
Today, Iâm writing about what looks like the end of an era in Ethereum development.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterinâthe single most influential individual in the Ethereum ecosystemâhas publicly declared the end of the rollup-centric roadmap, a vision he first laid out in 2020 and one that has guided years of technical development, funding, and ecosystem growth.
The community response has been a mix of shock from some and relieved acceptance from most, as developers and builders begin to reframe how a new roadmapâone focused on scaling Ethereum Layer-1 by orders of magnitudeâcan still enable their products and services to succeed.
Below, I break down the two main failings of the rollup-centric roadmap, what its unwinding means for Layer-1 protocol development, and how Layer-2s still fit into this new era of Ethereum development.
Letâs get into it.
Yours truly,
Christine D. Kim
đď¸ Call Minutes
(For background on the ACD process and jargon used on these calls, refer to the Ethereum Governance 101 document in the ACD Toolkit.)
Cell-Level Deltas for Data Column Broadcast
Ethereum Foundation (EF) Networking Engineer Marco Munizaga gave a presentation on Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 8136 in the âethereum/EIPsâ Github repository.
This backward-compatible optimization will reduce node bandwidth consumption during blob propagation.
Munizaga emphasized that EIP-8136 can be rolled out incrementally and does not require network-wide coordination to be activated.
Developers agreed to try to activate EIP-8136 as soon as possible, even before the Glamsterdam upgrade.
Epbs-Devnet-0
There is a new consensus specifications release, v1.7.0-alpha.2, for the Gloas fork. The first multi-client testnet for Gloas, epbs-devnet-0, will be based on these specifications.
Developers confirmed they are still targeting a hopeful devnet launch by the end of this month.
Prysm client developer âPotuzâ noted that a âserious bugâ in EIP-7732, Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), was identified by the Lido team. Developers are working on a fix to address the bug.
Potuz also flagged that the optimistic sync feature in consensus layer (CL) clients may cause complications during the implementation of new fork choice rules required in ePBS. He strongly encouraged CL client teams to review his annotated specifications for the Gloas fork for more information.
Hegota Headliner Discussion
Developers discussed two CL-focused headliner proposals for the Heze fork:
Several developers on the call voiced strong support for FOCIL.
As the deadline for headliner proposals has now passed, developers agreed to reach a final decision on the headliner feature for Heze on the next ACDC call in two weeks.
đ Thatâs all for my summary of ACDC #174. Continue reading for insights and direct quotes about the evolution of Ethereum. To read the rest of the newsletter, make sure you are signed up for a premium subscription:
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đ Insights
(Quotes featured in this section may be edited for grammar and clarity. For more information on the people quoted in this section, refer to the ACD Call Directory in the ACD Toolkit.)
Vitalikâs post on Tuesday may have been the most incendiary one yet in his 2026 posting streak.
In it, he statesâplainly and without much hedgingâtwo facts about Ethereumâs Layer-2 (L2) rollup ecosystem:
L2s are not Ethereum, either from a security or a user experience (UX) perspective.
L2s are not how Ethereum is scaling. Ethereum developers are refocusing on Layer-1 (L1) scaling efforts.
Itâs worth emphasizing that Vitalik stated the above as fact, not opinion. Theyâre framed as statements about the reality of how the Ethereum L2 ecosystem has evolved.
