Ethereum’s hard turn signals rising pressure from high-performance rivals

Ethereum’s recent protocol upgrades suggest more than incremental improvements as high-performance competitors chip away at its dominance.

Vitalik Buterin detailed the plan to build what he called a “cypherpunk principled non-ugly Ethereum” — not as a replacement chain, but as a tightly integrated evolution of the existing system.

The proposal follows $ETH developers formally scheduling Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) for the forthcoming Hegota hard fork (currently targeted for late 2026). And with account abstraction updates and long-term architectural changes, that transition signals a broader recalibration of Ethereum’s roadmap at a time when rivals are catching up.

The development comes as BNP Paribas Asset Management taps Ethereum for a new blockchain pilot, this time issuing a tokenised share class of a French‑domiciled money market fund.

The tokenized shares, issued onchain using BNP Paribas’ AssetFoundryTM platform, will give gated access via a “permissioned access model on $ETH … whereby holdings and transfers are restricted to eligible and authorised participants, in line with applicable regulatory requirements,” according to the announcement.

Ethereum targets rival chains with Base-Layer overhaul and ZK integration

FOCIL, known as EIP-7805, aims to improve Ethereum’s censorship resistance at the protocol level by forcing validators to include all transactions. The mechanism would allow validator committees to apply fork-choice rules and inclusion lists to force the inclusion of transactions. If the proposed block fails to include legitimate public mempool transactions, the chain can fork, allowing inclusion within a limited number of slots at once.

The native account abstraction mechanism is introduced in EIP-8141 and is also in the pipeline for Hegota. Ethereum’s scaling strategy has relied for years on a rollup-first roadmap, driving execution into Layer 2 networks but leaving the base layer relatively lean.

But Buterin’s recent rhetoric points to a different emphasis. Instead of relying solely on rollups to improve scalability and ease user experience, Ethereum is turning its attention to improving the architecture of its base layer.

Buterin has also advised longer-term structural changes. This includes embedding zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs into Layer 1 validation in a proposed “Beam Chain”.

The timing is notable. High-performance Layer 1 chains like Solana have become popular for their high throughput, low fees, and simplified user experience, despite their monolithic architecture.

With Ethereum’s growing modularity, these networks handle transaction processing on a single layer, reducing fragmentation. While the blockchain network’s multiple rollup model has improved scalability, it has also made issues more complex — specifically around liquidity, bridging, and user experience. As rival ecosystems seek simplicity and speed, Ethereum seems set to recalibrate. Buterin recently likened those upcoming changes to what he described as a “jet engine changes in-flight” of sorts, referencing the network’s 2022 move to proof-of-stake.

He even considered multiple potentially larger transformations of Ethereum (state tree rewrites, leaner consensus, ZK-native validation, virtual machine changes).

Base-layer upgrades reinforce security and neutrality

Instead of fragmentation through Layer 2s and competing EVM-based chains, Ethereum’s leadership seems set upon recapturing architectural control back at the base layer. The “hard turn” has less to do with delivering throughput and more with upholding the features that the network itself was built around: censorship resistance, neutrality, and cryptographic robustness.

The extent to which this recalibration is a defensive move, a stand against its high-performance rivals, or a natural evolution of Ethereum’s roadmap remains open to debate. But what is unambiguous is that Ethereum is no longer willing to rely solely on rollups for its future growth.

To that end, as high-speed rivals recalibrate expectations for blockchain performance, Ethereum is betting that hardening its core — while streamlining its long-term architecture — will help position it as the industry’s bedrock settlement layer. The bet may pay off in the next phase, starting with Hegota.

Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.