Vitalik on the "Cryptographic World Computer": The Paradigm Evolution from the Bitcoin Whitepaper to Ethereum

Every core assumption of blockchain is being rewritten.

Written by: Vitalik Buterin

Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News

We call Ethereum "a blockchain," as if it were fundamentally of the same technological class as the Bitcoin created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Indeed, the two share similarities in many respects; even the "minimal Ethereum" to be built in the future according to the Strawmap will retain the core characteristics of a blockchain. At the same time, however, this technology has undergone tremendous evolution over the past fifteen years and will continue to iterate over the next three. By then, it would be highly reasonable to describe Ethereum's evolving form as a system of an entirely different nature.

Today's Ethereum features general-purpose computation, proof-of-stake mechanics, on-chain applications equipped with zero-knowledge proofs, and layer-2 networks designed for scalability and privacy protection. The future Ethereum will feature computation capacity that can be flexibly tuned between maximum scalability and full generality; multiple multi-party block construction models; deeply optimized proof-of-stake; and zero-knowledge proofs built into the base layer protocol, playing a central role.