Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher
The Ethereum Devconnect developer conference was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Monday. Vitalik Buterin's keynote speech elevated the discussion from a technical practice framework to exploring the value of Ethereum within the entire crypto industry. Ethereum Foundation co-executive directors Tomasz Stanczak and Hsiao-Wei Wang focused on Ethereum's role during the transition period, emphasizing reliable operation, community collaboration, and continuous innovation. Former core researcher and current Etherealize co-founder Danny Ryan highlighted Ethereum's crucial role in both decentralization and institutional applications from an institutional perspective.
Moving Towards the Fusaka Phase, the Foundation: Will Achieve Uninterrupted Upgrades
In his speech, Tomasz Stanczak reviewed Ethereum's development trajectory over the past decade, pointing out that this period successfully established a solid foundation for consensus mechanisms, diverse clients, and privacy-related tools.
However, he also warned that future challenges will lie in strengthening user privacy, maintaining decentralization, and enhancing personalized self-control, requiring the broad participation of more contributors. Stanczak specifically described the participants from different fields within the Ethereum ecosystem at the conference, believing that these decentralized contributions are key to ensuring network security and smooth operation. "Ethereum's uninterrupted operation in each upgrade is thanks to the efforts of these long-term contributors." Hsiao-Wei Wang, on the other hand, explained the foundation's management philosophy as "Ethereum is a ladder," using the metaphor of "compound interest on steps" to describe ecosystem evolution—from research to clients to applications and finally to the community, each step becomes a new stepping stone for the next generation of builders. She stated, "This year marks a new chapter for Ethereum. Since the Ethereum Foundation completed its leadership transition, Tomasz and I have made it our primary responsibility to ensure a stable and smooth transition, as Ethereum is entering a new phase." Regarding the Fusaka upgrade to the Ethereum mainnet next month, she explained at the conference that Ethereum's transition to Fusaka requires focusing on three core capabilities: first, maintaining 100% continuous block production reliability throughout major upgrades; second, the flexibility to allow for diverse technological paths within the ecosystem; and third, the Foundation's concern for Ethereum, but not its control over it, through stewardship. Wang emphasized that Ethereum's decade of accumulation stems from countless trials and tribulations and perseverance. Maintaining 100% availability throughout all major updates is a testament to this reliability, allowing users to invest in development without fear. In addition, Danny Ryan, a former core researcher at the foundation, shared his experience transitioning from protocol development to institutional applications. Ryan criticized the inefficiency of traditional finance, citing severe market fragmentation, with stock settlements requiring T+1 days and bond settlements requiring T+2 days, far inferior to Ethereum's instant settlement. He described the traditional institutional system architecture as outdated, like layers of stacked laws and paper. However, Ryan also expressed surprise at the strong institutional demand for decentralization. From an institutional perspective, decentralization at the infrastructure layer, 100% online availability, security supporting trillions of dollars in asset classes, and a mature application layer with privacy are all essential requirements. Ryan emphasized that once the cognitive gap is bridged, institutions will realize the necessity of Ethereum. Ethereum is repositioning itself, with Vitalik discussing its value in the crypto industry. Vitalik's developer conference speeches are typically framed as "Ethereum in 30 Minutes," outlining Ethereum's current state and future in just 30 minutes. Comparing the content from Devcon SEA 2024 to Devconnect ARG 2025, Ethereum is repositioning itself, from its technical roadmap to its value on the blockchain. Last year, Vitalik primarily focused on the technical details of a "world computer," specifically how L1 acts as a trust anchor and the complementary functions of L2, much like a GPU. “The reason Ethereum’s world computer is able to come together is because every GPU is connected to the most trusted machine through various technologies such as optimistic proof systems, zero-knowledge proofs, SNARKs, STARKs, Jolt, Plonk, etc.” These systems effectively ensure that L1 can verify what is happening inside L2 without trust, and L2 can also read what is happening on L1 without trust. There is a significant interaction between these two components, Vitalik said, “They together constitute Ethereum today.” Last year, he emphasized decentralized technical practices, such as the fault-tolerant design of multi-client architecture and the diversity of staking pools, and reviewed the initial results from the 2013 white paper to the Merge transition and the Surge phase, particularly highlighting the significant reduction in fees and improvements in transaction confirmation times (from minutes to milliseconds), emphasizing Ethereum’s breakthroughs in scalability. In contrast, the 2025 speech leaned more towards principled reflection, beginning with FTX as a negative example. Vitalik criticized FTX for its insolvency as a centralized exchange, emphasizing its fundamental difference from Ethereum—the shift from centralized trust to a mechanism that anyone can verify. He extensively incorporated cryptographic tools such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), and introduced the concept of "cosmolocal," emphasizing that Ethereum is a global network, not designed to appease any particular company or superpower, but to protect the freedom of people worldwide. This year's overall technology is more future-oriented, focusing on ZK-EVM's full node return and quantum-resistant upgrades. Last year, Vitalik mentioned "wanting to implement SNARK proofs for the entire chain," but this year he explicitly announced that ZK-EVM has entered the Alpha stage. Vitalik stated at the conference, "Data from ethproofs.org shows that provers can now prove Ethereum blocks in real time using dozens of consumer-grade GPUs." It's noticeable that while Vitalik focused on technology in previous years, this year he shifted to discussing Ethereum's "value," reflecting Ethereum's shift from infrastructure development to positioning its on-chain influence. Perhaps Ethereum is completing its coming-of-age ceremony, as Vitalik said at Devconnect ARG: "Ethereum can become a banner, leading a freer, more open, and collaborative world supported by permissionless open technology and decentralized security."
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