GM, this is Milk Road PRO, the newsletter that takes big, weighty technical topics and trims them down to size.
Something big just happened in the blockchain world. The kind of breakthrough that could reshape how blockchains are built and what they’re capable of.
To give you a sense of how big this might be:
Back in 2017, researchers at Google published a paper introducing a new architecture called transformers. At the time, it didn’t make headlines, but that one paper quietly unlocked the foundation for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and the entire wave of large language models (LLMs) we see today. It was the spark that lit the AI explosion.
Now, crypto might be facing a similar moment. A turning point.
ZK real-time proving has arrived (we’ll explain what that means in a second).
This new technology could change how blockchains work and make them much more scalable than ever before.
For example: here’s a quick look at some of the top blockchains and how many transactions per second (TPS) they’re handling right now.
Solana is currently leading the pack with 1,023 real TPS. It's miles ahead of the competition, most of which struggle to even reach 100 TPS.
And then there's Ethereum—handling only 16 TPS. 😔
Well here’s the thing: this breakthrough might not matter much for some blockchains—but for Ethereum, it's potentially a huge turning point. It could soon turn Ethereum into a 10,000+ TPS blockchain, not including its L2s. This would be a game changer for the Ethereum ecosystem.
And scalability isn't the only factor pointing towards a brighter future for Ethereum. Consider these recent developments:
- New leaders are now guiding Ethereum—can they accelerate its future?
- Ethereum’s roadmap just changed—will the strategy work?
- Two major products launch next year—will they draw users and devs?
- Staking ETFs are coming—how much capital could they bring in?
- The SEC is warming up to DeFi—could this boost Ethereum?
Ethereum isn’t just experiencing a tech upgrade; it's undergoing a significant transformation.
Today’s report is all about answering the above questions and deciphering whether or not Ethereum ($ETH), a frequently scrutinized asset, is still worth holding.
And before we introduce this new tech breakthrough and other stuff, we need to begin by discussing the individuals who are now steering Ethereum forward, because leadership was one of Ethereum's key weaknesses until this year.
NEW CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
If something’s not working, it comes down to leadership. It’s their job to keep the product competitive and relevant — not let it drift, ignore the market, and slowly fade away.
That’s how it works in any business. And when it comes to Ethereum, we think that’s been a major issue.
In our last Ethereum update, we laid out why we think the leadership has been falling short:
- There’s no clear north star to align the community
- Too much focus on research, not enough on the product itself
- Timelines are way out in the future, while Ethereum is losing ground today
- The L2 roadmap was necessary, but it’s leaking value and fragmenting liquidity
And it wasn’t just us. The community saw it, the builders saw it, investors saw it. It was clear as day.
So Ethereum had to respond. And they did. They replaced the current executive director with two co-executive directors.
Why two? Because together, they bring the best of both worlds.
- Hsiao-Wei Wang represents the research-driven side of Ethereum, staying true to its core vision and long-term values.
- Tomasz Stanczak, on the other hand, brings a fresh outside perspective and tons of hands-on experience. He’s led a 200-person team in Nethermind and knows what it takes to build and ship in a fast-moving space.
Together, they strike the balance between vision and execution and that could be a game changer for Ethereum.
This new leadership setup marks a fresh chapter as Ethereum continues to grow and evolve.
The community has been pretty vocal about wanting fresh leadership, pointing to a need for more clarity and momentum. So it’s great to see these positive changes taking shape.
👉 We don’t know Hsiao well enough to say much, since she’s not as public-facing as Tomasz and her role is more focused on research.
But Tomasz has spoken on a few podcasts, and hearing his thoughts has definitely made us feel more confident and excited about where this new leadership could take Ethereum.
And it’s not just about bringing in new leadership, we also want to spotlight a new business development initiative called Etherealize, which launched in January this year.
Its main goal is to help bring more institutions into the Ethereum ecosystem and ensure Ethereum has its voice by regulators and government bodies.
Just a few weeks ago, Vivek Raman, co-founder of Etherealize, presented Ethereum in front of the U.S. House of Representatives.
👉 It’s great to finally see a well-funded, well-equipped initiative taking on this kind of “behind-the-scenes” work for Ethereum.
Check out their Ethereum report. It’s the same one they share with institutions and anyone interested in understanding Ethereum better. It’s definitely worth your time.
But back to the new EF leadership. It's not just that they look good on paper. They’ve already started taking action.
They’ve had hundreds of calls and meetings with builders, investors, and community members, taking in feedback and criticism to really understand what the ecosystem needs right now.
And in response to all that feedback, they knew they had to start with a clear, simple roadmap — something the entire community can rally around.
REVAMPED ROADMAP
They’ve come out with a clear focus for where Ethereum is heading. Yes, there’s a detailed roadmap behind it with all the technical pieces, but here are the priorities that we think are most important:
1/ Scale L1 (Ethereum mainnet)
Ethereum has been scaling mostly through L2s, while improvements to the mainnet were pushed to the backburner. But let’s be real — 12-second block times and just 17 transactions per second aren’t cutting it for a blockchain in 2025. That needs to change.
There’s now a proposal on the table to boost TPS by 100x over the next four years. And they’re also discussing cutting block times down to 6 seconds.
2/ Scale blobs (L2s)
That doesn’t mean they’re stepping away from supporting L2s. In fact, they’re also focusing on increasing data storage for L2s.
If L2 growth keeps up — and all signs say it will — the current storage limits will be hit pretty soon. That would force L2s to look for workarounds, which isn’t something Ethereum wants.
The goal is to scale together, not split apart.
3/ Improve user experience
And while all that’s happening, let’s not forget — it’s the users who are paying for all of this. So making sure the experience is smooth and simple is just as important. Because it sucks right now.
The goal is to make Ethereum and its L2s feel like one unified chain. All the technical stuff, extra steps, and confusing parts should be either hidden or completely removed from the user flow.
That’s the kind of endgame we’d really love to see.
TLDR : We’re big fans of the new revamped roadmap. It hits all the right points and goes after the key challenges and opportunities Ethereum needs to focus on.
👉 Everyone knows what the top priorities are, and there’s a strong focus on keeping the whole community in the loop. Updates and changes will be talked through openly, with real feedback from users and developers shaping what comes next.
As we walk you through the upcoming product upgrades, you’ll see how they could tackle two, sometimes even all three of those priorities at once .
This clear direction helps bring the Ethereum community together around a shared vision. And that’s something Ethereum was really missing over the last few years.
Speaking of what was missing, one of the biggest things was the technology needed to help Ethereum truly scale.
ETHEREUM SCALING UNLOCKED
You might have heard of the blockchain trilemma.
It’s a simple way to explain how blockchains usually have to balance three big things: security, decentralization, and scalability.
Source: MR Research Hub
The tricky part is that it’s really hard to be great at all three at the same time. When you make one better, it often makes another worse (it’s like a game of Whac-A-Mole.)
Ethereum has always focused on security and decentralization, but scalability was the bottleneck.
On the flip side, blockchains like Solana emphasize scalability and security, but lack decentralization.
Now there’s a game-changing upgrade called ZK real-time proving.
This new tech finally gives Ethereum the boost it needs in scalability without giving up what makes it special.
👉 Looks like we have finally solved the famous blockchain trilemma: security, decentralization, and scalability all working together.
And with that, Ethereum is ready to truly shine.
Let’s break down what this breakthrough actually is and how it can finally help Ethereum scale P.S. This will get a bit complex, but we’re going to make it as easy to understand as we can, because it’s worth it to understand and build conviction in Ethereum. Plus, right afterwards I’ll get into the big catalysts coming for $ETH. So read on!
ZK REAL-TIME PROVING
First, we need to understand how the Ethereum blockchain works today.
Source: MR Research Hub
Ethereum processes a new group of transactions (aka: a ‘block’) every 12 seconds.
Each transaction in the block requires a certain amount of fees (aka: gas) to be paid in a measurement of $ETH known as ‘Gwei.’
1 Gwei = 0.000000001 ETH – and each block has a Gwei limit (better known as a ‘gas limit’) of 36 million.
(Man, they don’t make it easy, do they??)
That gas limit basically controls how many transactions can fit in a block.
On average, a single transaction uses about 180,000 gas. So with 36 million gas to work with, each block can hold around 200 transactions. Spread across 12-second blocks, that adds up to roughly 17 transactions per second.
…but why does Ethereum even have a gas limit?
👉 The gas limit was set to make sure anyone running a validator from home could keep up with the network using a regular computer.
(More computers on the network means greater decentralization – a metric Ethereum is actively optimizing for.)
But as the network grew, this limit started to get in the way. It became a major traffic jam, slowing everything down and capping how many transactions Ethereum could handle.
So the challenge became clear: how can Ethereum remain decentralized without letting that limit hold back the network’s growth?
And that’s exactly where ‘ZK real-time proving’ comes in.
As the name suggests, this new technology creates zero-knowledge proofs to process more transactions, without increasing the computation requirements of the Ethereum network. All in real time. And all within the 12-second block window.
Source: MR Research Hub
With this new technology the Ethereum network will be able to process more transactions without demanding an increase in computational power from its validators.
(Which, remember: would lower its decentralization)
👉 This change completely transforms how blocks are verified and opens the door to much higher gas limits, massively boosting Ethereum’s capacity to handle more transactions.
In the diagram above, we use a 2 billion gas limit to represent around 1,000 transactions per second. But in reality, Ethereum has the potential to scale far beyond that.
✍️ According to leading researchers at the Ethereum Foundation, the network could realistically hit 1,000 TPS by 2027 or 2028 and that’s just the beginning.
There are still a few challenges Ethereum will need to tackle — but we’ll get to those later.
For now, let’s keep the focus on how Ethereum is evolving and what exciting changes are coming to the market next year.
NATIVE AND BASED ROLLUPS
Right now, besides the mainnet, Ethereum mostly acts as a settlement layer and a data availability layer for other blockchains.
But starting next year, two more big features are coming: Based & Native rollups.
Take a look at the picture below.
Let's break each one down. On the right side, you can see what it's called and an example. On the left side, you can see how that specific product is using Ethereum.
Validium
Validiums are chains that only rely on Ethereum for settlement, but handle everything else on their own. A good example is Immutable, a gaming-focused Layer 2.
Rollups
Then you’ve got rollups like Optimism and Arbitrum. They use Ethereum not only to settle transactions, but also to store their transaction data (using Ethereum’s data availability layer). Most of them today are optimistic rollups, but they’re moving toward ZK rollups in the future — though that is not today’s focus.
Based rollups
Based rollups are a step further. Like regular rollups, they use Ethereum for settlement and data, but they also rely on Ethereum validators to order their transactions. That means no need for a centralized sequencer, which could block or censor activity.
Based rollups solve one of the biggest problems in today’s ecosystem: fragmentation. Right now, most rollups operate in silos and don’t communicate with each other.
The game-changer? Something called universal synchronous composability.
👉 It means rollups can work together in real time, without the need for bridges. Everything runs on the same Ethereum block, sharing one big pool of users and liquidity.
The result is smooth, instant interoperability — making DeFi and other dApps faster, more connected, and way more powerful. Taiko is a great example of this in action.
Native rollups
Finally, native rollups take it all and add execution too. Think of them as full Ethereum mainnet clones — offering everything the mainnet does, just in a separate rollup chain.
Some apps, companies or organizations might not want to deal with all the complexity, but still want the benefits of blockchain. For them, a native based rollup is the perfect choice.
It’s simple, secure, and fully handled by the Ethereum network — including future upgrades. No need to manage your own infrastructure or worry about custom setups.
👉 Just plug in and let the decentralized system do the heavy lifting.
Overall, we believe these upgrades give Ethereum exactly what it needs to serve the majority of the market. And by tapping into its powerful network effects, it’s on track to push even further ahead as the leading blockchain platform. 👉The key thing to understand is that Ethereum is building a variation of technologies for different companies and use cases.
Whereas Solana for example has just generalized blockspace on Solana, Ethereum has many different blockspace features or customizations to suit the needs of the 1,000,000’s of companies moving onchain in the coming years.
So when will all these exciting developments show up in Ethereum’s price? Honestly, we think the momentum is already building.
Sure, it’s hard to say for certain that $ETH’s recent price moves are directly tied to these upgrades but one thing’s clear:
Ethereum is starting to attract bigger, long-term players who are thinking years ahead, not just chasing short-term gains.
More than ever, Ethereum feels like the default choice for anyone serious about building or using blockchain tech.
But let’s save the price and value talk for later. First, let’s look at some of the key catalysts coming up for Ethereum.
Uh, Oh… 😧 The rest of this report is exclusive to Milk Road PRO members!
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WHAT’S LEFT INSIDE? 👀
- Why the $ETH ETFs are about to become a whole lot more enticing!
- Why Michael Saylor’s ‘Bitcoin Strategy’ pales in comparison to an $ETH strategy
- Our price prediction for Ethereum in 2030 (fair warning: it’s a bold one)
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