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Vitalik Buterin said that the A series of critical developments in the ethereum (eth) ecosystem in recent months have made the network's fundamentals “incredibly strong.”
Buterin made the statement in response toHe claims that ethereum has “weakened a lot” during this market cycle, countering the narrative by citing a number of recent advancements and achievements within the ecosystem.
Solid foundations
Buterin began by highlighting the significant reduction in transaction fees on Layer 2 (L2) solutions, which now average less than $0.01. He argued that this has made ethereum more accessible and cost-effective for users, a critical factor in maintaining the network’s competitiveness.
In chain data shows that ethereum L2 Arbitrum fees fell from over $0.50 in March to a range between $0.01 and $0.004 since mid-April.
At the same time, the daily transaction count has consistently exceeded 1 million, which excludes the possibility of a fee reduction due to lack of activity. Similar movements can be observed when analyzing other ethereum L2s, such as Linea, Starknet, and zkSync Era.
Buterin attributed this change in fee pricing to the implementation of EIP-4844 and the introduction of dedicated block spaces, called “blobs,” for data sent from L2 blockchains on March 13.
He also highlighted the progress of Optimism and Arbitrum, both reaching important milestones in their development, which he called “Stage 1.” Buterin said that these platforms are essential to ethereum’s scalability strategy, offering faster and cheaper transactions while maintaining the security and decentralization of the ethereum mainnet.
Improving technology
In addition to these technological advancements, Buterin highlighted improvements in the user experience for multi-layer wallets, which now require less manual intervention when switching networks. This improvement simplifies interactions within the ethereum ecosystem, making it more user-friendly.
Buterin further emphasized the growing maturity of Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology, which has become more powerful and accessible to decentralized application (dApp) developers.
He added that the evolution of ZK tools, along with the emergence of second-generation privacy solutions like 0xbow.io, demonstrate ethereum’s continued innovation in privacy and security.
Buterin said the expanding ecosystem for identity, reputation, and credentials within ethereum, which is seeing increased adoption and practical use, will be another key driver of adoption. He also highlighted significant progress in the development of STARKs (Transparent and Scalable Argument of Knowledge), which are vital to ethereum’s long-term security and decentralization goals.
