Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, has unveiled a strawmap — a preliminary roadmap for the protocol’s development.
Introducing strawmap, a strawman roadmap by EF Protocol.
Believe in something. Believe in an Ethereum strawmap.
Who is this for?
The document, available at strawmap[.]org, is intended for advanced readers. It is a dense and technical resource primarily for researchers,… pic.twitter.com/gIZh5I8Not
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) February 25, 2026
“Strawmap is an invitation to view protocol updates holistically. Proposals on a unified visual field provide a more complete picture of Ethereum L1 goals. […] It is not a forecast but a coordination tool for development in the spirit of accelerationism. It offers just one of many possible scenarios,” the expert emphasized.
The document outlines approximately seven planned hard forks by 2029. Updates are expected to be released every six months. According to Drake, integrating AI into the development process could significantly shorten these timelines.
The roadmap published by the researcher is presented as a timeline. Consensus layer upgrades follow a “stellar” naming scheme (Altair, Bellatrix, Capella, Deneb, Electra, Fulu).
Currently, only two of them have confirmed names — Glamsterdam and Hegota. They are set to be deployed in 2026. The others have working titles.
Key objectives include:
- L1 speed — achieving finalization in a few seconds and reducing slot time;
- L1 throughput — up to 1 gigabyte of gas per second (about 10,000 TPS) through zkEVM and real-time proof generation;
- L2 throughput — up to 1 gigabyte per second (approximately 10 million TPS) thanks to data availability sampling;
- Post-quantum L1 security — hash-based cryptography;
- L1 privacy — built-in privacy through shielded ETH transfers.
“Strawmap will evolve with community feedback, research progress, and governance,” Drake noted, promising to update the document at least once a quarter.
Additional Details
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on Drake’s post. He explained how developers plan to accelerate block production and transaction confirmation.
A very important document. Let’s walk through this one “goal” at a time. We’ll start with fast slots and fast finality.
I expect that we’ll reduce slot time in an incremental fashion, eg. I like the “sqrt(2) at a time” formula (12 -> 8 -> 6 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2, though the last two… https://t.co/ni9wIF2BgJ
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 25, 2026
He pointed out that in the new roadmap, “fast slots” are highlighted as a separate direction and are almost independent of other updates. Currently, the time to create a new block is about 12 seconds, with the ultimate goal to reduce it to two.
According to Buterin, the reduction will be phased — using a formula akin to the square root of two: from 12 to 8, then 6, 4, and 2 seconds. A key condition is the improvement of P2P interaction between nodes, which will allow blocks to be distributed without excessive data load. This will make short slots safe and technically feasible.
The second key goal is to reduce finalization time from the current 16 minutes to 6-16 seconds. This will require replacing the complex existing confirmation system with a simpler, cleaner, and quantum-resistant one.
Buterin stated that the changes will be “very invasive.” The most significant step is planned to coincide with the transition to post-quantum cryptography, specifically to hash-based signatures.
“An important advantage of the phased approach is that it allows slots to become quantum-resistant much earlier than finalization. As a result, we can quickly reach a scenario where, in the event of the sudden emergence of powerful quantum computers, the network loses the guarantee of finalization but continues to stably produce blocks,” he concluded.
Earlier in February, Buterin urged the integration of transaction simulation mechanisms into crypto wallets and smart contracts to make them safer and more user-friendly.