Vitalik Buterin, often called the „father” of Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, says the long-standing blockchain problem, the trilemma, has been solved. What does this mean for people investing money, for developers and for the whole market? Will Ethereum become number one in the world of decentralization? Let’s take a closer look, because this could change everything in digital money.
First, let’s recall what the blockchain trilemma is.
It is an idea from Buterin which holds that in a blockchain system it is hard to have three things at once:
- Decentralization (no central boss),
- Security (protection against attacks),
- Scalability (the ability to process many transactions quickly).
Usually, improving one thing damages the others. For example, Bitcoin prioritizes security and decentralization, but it is slow. Other networks give up full decentralization to be faster.
In his new statement, Buterin announced that the era of compromises is over. „The trilemma is solved, not only in theory but in code” he said, pointing to two solutions: ZK-EVMs (Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines, that is, Ethereum virtual machines with zero-knowledge proofs, a technique that hides the details but confirms the truth) and PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling, that is, data availability sampling by peers). ZK-EVMs are a way to verify transactions quickly and securely. PeerDAS helps make data available without centralization. Buterin says PeerDAS has been operating since 2025, and ZK-EVMs partially since 2026. As a result, Ethereum has decentralization, security and high speed at the same time.
The announcement concerns future Ethereum upgrades, which are meant to make it better than older systems such as Bitcoin. Buterin stresses that these tools already work in practice, as shown by the growing use of ZK-EVMs in small parts of the network. This is a big change, because it allows building large applications, such as DeFi (decentralized finance), NFTs (non-fungible tokens) or global payment systems, without the risk of centralization or attacks.
People in the crypto world react in different ways. On the X platform (formerly Twitter), a Cointelegraph post about this gathered a lot of likes and comments. Ethereum fans are delighted: „Ethereum with PeerDAS and ZK-EVMs changes the game!”. But skeptics point to competitors such as Kaspa and PAW Chain, which claim they solved the problem earlier. „Kaspa did it in 2021, but nobody talks about it,” someone writes. Others, such as Matrix AI Network, add that scalability is not everything: protecting data, for example biological data, is also important.
What does this mean for the market? Ethereum, as a home for smart contracts (intelligent agreements), may become stronger, attracting more developers and money. The current price of ETH (the Ethereum token) is high, which shows optimism. Experts say that by 2030 ZK-EVMs will be the „heart” of Ethereum, providing unlimited scalability. But Buterin warns against bad things, such as too much power in the hands of VC investors (venture capital) or premining (pre-mining of coins).
Vitalik’s words are not just a technical update but a plan for the future of crypto. Will Ethereum really overcome the trilemma and become the foundation of Web3 (the new, decentralized version of the internet)? We will see, but the revolution has already begun.
