Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on Sunday that the Hegotá upgrade, planned for 2027, could be the network’s final “normal” fork before development shifts toward recursive STARKs, formal verification, optimized consensus, and quantum-safe cryptography.
Buterin characterized the transition as moving Ethereum from “being just a blockchain to being something much more powerful.” He described the target architecture as a “cryptographic world computer” that combines blockchains with cryptographic verification, privacy, and decentralized offchain components.
Under this model, more computation would move offchain while the base layer handles verification of results, settlement of transactions, and preservation of access to shared onchain state. Hegotá is likely to be the final upgrade whose features would still be recognizable to someone familiar with Ethereum in 2015, Buterin indicated.
PeerDAS and Data Availability
The shift builds on technologies like PeerDAS, which allows nodes to verify data availability by sampling portions of data rather than downloading everything. This approach reduces the burden on individual nodes while maintaining network security through cryptographic verification.
Researcher and Legal Perspectives
Ethereum researcher Barnabé Monnot raised a structural concern about the proposed direction. Monnot argued that a “world computer” should keep important records onchain so users can see what is happening and interact directly without relying on external servers.
Crypto lawyer Gabriel Shapiro questioned the underlying demand assumption. Shapiro asked how much demand exists for proof-based systems compared with traditional trust-based models that rely on reputation, regulation, and legal enforcement rather than continuous cryptographic verification.
Buterin did not specify exact technical details of Hegotá’s planned features or provide a full timeline for technologies beyond the 2027 upgrade.
