Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum’s fundamentals have become ‘crazy strong’

Vitalik Buterin said that the series of critical developments in Ethereum’s (ETH) ecosystem in recent months have made the network’s fundamentals “crazy strong.”

Buterin made the statement in response to claims that Ethereum has “weakened a lot” during this market cycle, countering the narrative by citing a series of recent advancements and achievements within the ecosystem.

Strong fundamentals

Buterin started by highlighting the significant reduction in transaction fees on Layer 2 (L2) solutions, now averaging below $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.

Onchain data shows that Ethereum L2 Arbitrum saw its fees fall 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 surpassed 1 million, which excludes the possibility of fee reduction due to lack of activity. Similar movements can be witnessed while analyzing other Ethereum L2s, such as Linea, Starknet, and zkSync Era.

Buterin attributed this shift in fee prices to the implementation of EIP-4844 and the introduction of dedicated block spaces — called “blobs” — for data sent from L2 blockchains on Mar. 13.

He also emphasized the progress made by Optimism and Arbitrum, both of which have reached important milestones in their development, which he labeled “Stage 1.” Buterin said these platforms are essential to Ethereum’s scalability strategy, offering faster and cheaper transactions while maintaining the security and decentralization of the main Ethereum network.

Improving technology

In addition to these technological advancements, Buterin pointed to improvements in the user experience for cross-L2 wallets, which now require less manual intervention when switching networks. This enhancement 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 for decentralized application (dApp) developers.

He added that the evolution of ZK tooling, along with the emergence of second-generation privacy solutions like 0xbow.io, demonstrate Ethereum’s continued innovation in privacy and security.

Buterin said that 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 pointed to significant progress in the development of STARKs (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge), which are vital to Ethereum’s long-term security and decentralization goals.

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