At Ethereum Devconnect ARG, LambdaClass founder Fede delivered a passionate and thought-provoking speech. He rejected the traditional narrative of the “world computer” and redefined Ethereum as the first “verifiable computer” in human history. Fede believes that this “anti-fragility,” which does not rely on trust and is based solely on mathematics and economic incentives, is the fundamental cornerstone for Ethereum to establish internet property rights and support a trillion-scale “global economy.”
However, this is not merely a celebration, but a harsh alarm bell. In the face of the rise of high-performance public chains like Solana, Fede candidly stated that the Ethereum community is facing the risk of “complacency leading to death.” From denouncing the false prosperity of “most L2s not being able to run at all” to criticizing the development experience of Solidity as “shooting oneself in the foot,” he urged the community to break free from the information bubble and regain the ambition and fighting spirit of the “Bronze Age.” He quoted a famous saying from the former CEO of Intel to warn everyone: in the brutal competition of technology, “Only the paranoid survive.”
From the impact of the performance limits of 1 Gigagas to the architectural vision of building Lean Ethereum, Fede showcases how Ethereum can maintain its dominance over the next decade with the most hardcore technical details and the most sincere emotions. This is not just a technical roadmap; it is also a declaration of war against mediocrity.
The following is a transcript of the highlights of this speech.
Speaker: Fede (LambdaClass)
Today I want to talk about the next decade of Ethereum: from “verifiable computer” to “global economy.”
Core Definition: Ethereum is the first “verifiable computer”
To me, Ethereum is a Verifiable Computer.
I have never really liked the term “world computer.” I believe AWS or Google are the true “world computers.” They have countless funds and servers, but you have to trust them. The biggest difference between Ethereum and them is verifiability.
Ethereum is the world's first verifiable computer that does not require trust in the computation itself, but only in economic incentives and mathematics. This gives it a significant advantage over AWS or Google Cloud. In traditional cloud services, everything is based on trust, which can be broken.
A few days ago, I saw on Twitter that someone hacked into Bing and modified the movie list. If you search for “top ten movies,” the results are tampered with by hackers. In this case, you are actually trusting the hacker. Such things cannot happen on Ethereum unless the entire network is compromised, but this is extremely difficult because you would have to simultaneously breach multiple teams and multiple client implementations, and everyone can see the attack process.
This gives Ethereum a anti-fragile nature. Whether it's North Korea, other state actors, or private hackers, every attack attempt actually makes Ethereum stronger, as it continues to operate, carrying massive amounts of funds.
The revolution brought by verifiable computing
Verifiable computing achieves true Internet Property Rights.
- True Ownership: You no longer need to click “Agree to Terms” to hand over your data to tech giants; instead, you control everything through private keys. Private keys are more reliable than any service agreement.
- Global Neutrality: Chinese developers, Russian traders, American funds, and Argentinian users are all competing on the same fair playing field.
- The Cornerstone of Artificial Intelligence: In the next decade, we will tokenize everything from artwork and land to artificial intelligence. This is crucial. If the future is driven by AI, hackers will have a strong motive to tamper with AI parameters. We need Ethereum to verify whether AI is functioning as intended.
Current Status and Product-Market Fit (PMF)
Ethereum has created a complete economy. Currently, this is not just a scale of $300 billion, but it processes a transaction volume of $3 trillion per month through stablecoins, which is three times the scale of Visa.
Our greatest advantage over Visa or the New York Stock Exchange is composability. All funds, assets, and artworks are in one place and can be swapped at any time. This creates a flywheel effect. In this sense, Ethereum is less fragmented than global capital markets because it operates around the clock.
The product-market fit (PMF) of Ethereum currently can be summarized as:
- Decentralized/permissionless verifiability.
- Privacy (the functionality we need to build at the core layer).
- Stablecoin (programmable, private, borderless US dollar).
Technical Challenges: The Hard Nuts We Need to Face
To continue winning over the next decade, I must “vent” from a technical perspective. Here are the challenges I see:
1. Performance (
We (LambdaClass) are building the Ethrex client. My team just told me that we are only 10% behind Reth in terms of performance. Apart from Nethermind, Reth, Geth, and us, most clients are struggling with performance.
If we do not improve the hardware requirements for validators, it will be difficult for us to achieve the performance required to compete with Solana and others.
This touches on a sensitive topic: Gas Limit. For the past three years, we have decided not to raise the Gas Limit, which has slowed us down. I believe we can increase speed while maintaining verifiability. Previously, this was a taboo subject, but now, in order to compete, we need to accelerate. If other execution layers can't keep up, we cannot wait. Ethereum is more important than any single team.
I am also reflecting: Is the goal of Ethereum really to allow everyone to run a node at home with a $50 Raspberry Pi? I'm not sure. Maybe it's enough as long as the validation cost is low enough (a few thousand dollars or even a few dollars), and it doesn't necessarily have to be an extremely low threshold.
)# 2. Scalability ###
I think we should increase the Gas Limit by 100 times. The cheaper it is, the more people will use it. The internet only gave birth to YouTube after it became faster.
In addition, I am a loyal fan of RISC-V and not very fond of Solidity. Solidity does not represent Ethereum. While it has made significant contributions, it has many issues. I believe RISC-V should be the default standard.
About Layer 2: To be honest, most L2 tech stacks simply cannot run. You clone the codebase to run it, and it’s broken. The current incentive mechanism is “issue a token, then ignore it and wait for it to die.” If you believe in a Rollup-centric roadmap, we must make running Rollup extremely simple. We are working to enable Ethrex to run L2 with a single command.
(# 3. Interoperability and Decentralization
A few days ago, AWS went down, and some Rollups also crashed, which is terrible. The Solana community is mocking us, and I think they have a point. We need to advance to “Stage 2”, we need decentralized sequencers, we need Based Rollups (reusing L1 pipelines to build L2), and technologies like CommitBoost for pre-confirmations.
)# 4. Privacy ###
I once received a phone call from a lawyer warning me that I was in big trouble, so I feel deeply about this. We need to support all developers committed to privacy (such as Roman, Alexei, and the developers of Samurai Wallet). If I want my mom to use Ethereum, she would never want all transactions to be visible to the whole world. The current rules regarding privacy development are very vague, and we need to fight for this together.
5. Security (
There are too few maintainers for the Solidity compiler, with only one or two people on GitHub. This is the most important programming language for Ethereum, yet it faces a huge risk of manpower shortage. Solidity has a simple syntax, but it's easy to write security vulnerabilities. As a developer who has used more than 20 languages, writing Solidity feels like shooting myself in the foot. We need better compilers or long-term solutions like RISC-V ZKVM.
)# 6. Post-Quantum Era ###Post-Quantum(
We are collaborating with Justin Drake to develop Lean Ethereum. Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum has a significant advantage in post-quantum cryptography deployment because we allow for multi-client implementation and the community is more open, even if it means we are making some radical changes.
) Social and Cultural Challenges: Rejecting Mediocrity
I am a die-hard fan of Ethereum, my company relies on Ethereum, but I must speak frankly:
- We need to have a “Bronze Age” mentality: Don't think “we either won or we're winning.” This complacency can lead to stagnation. Look at Intel, once a giant now left behind by NVIDIA and AMD. We need to maintain a sense of hunger and ambition.
- Breaking the Closed-Door Approach: Science and engineering require open debate. Important decisions like EOF (Ethereum Object Format) should not be made in closed-door meetings. If decisions are made behind closed doors, national actors can easily control the network by infiltrating key decision-makers (refer to the case of OpenBSD).
- Learn from Competitors: I have attended every Solana Breakpoint conference, not because I support Solana, but because I want to learn from competitors. Linux succeeded by copying the advantages of Solaris and making it open source. We need this attitude.
- Reject Echo Chambers: We need to pay those who hold contrarian views. There are partners in my company who often criticize me, and although it makes me uncomfortable, it creates a good feedback loop. Without a good culture, there won't be good technology in the long run.
What is LambdaClass doing?
We are not only complaining, but we are also taking action:
- Collaboration with Governments in Latin America: In Argentina (Sobra project), Mexico, and Colombia, we are conducting identity verification, KYC, and loan services through on-chain ID.
- Global Infrastructure: Establish passport and property rights infrastructure in Africa and Central Asia (such as Uzbekistan).
- Tech Stack: Building the Ethrex (L1 client ), L2 stack based on SP1 and Zisk, ZKVM in collaboration with TMI Labs, and privacy and decentralized AI projects.
- Partners: We are collaborating with IRSA (Argentina's real estate giant) to streamline payment channels.
![]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-187f207d69281fd8a90f673756149907.webp###
( Q&A )
Q: How do you feel about Devconnect being held in Argentina at this moment?
Happy. Very happy. I'm glad my mother is here; she can finally understand what I'm doing. I'm also very happy to show the world what we are doing.
Q: What do you think is the most important measure at present?
Lean Ethereum. I used to be indifferent to the concept of “Ultrasound Money.” But Lean Ethereum feels like a grand cathedral. When I was walking with Justin Drake in a cathedral in Cambridge, he asked me, “Do you think people will view the design of Ethereum in 500 years the same way they look at this cathedral?” I replied, “Yes, and you are one of the architects.”
Q: How much do you think the Gas Limit can increase in the near future?
Relying on Nethermind's amazing engineering capabilities (although I don't like the C# language), and our efforts with Reth, I believe we can achieve 300-400 Megagas on a good server. In the coming years, with technological improvements, we aim to target 1 Gigagas.
Q: You have interacted with various groups of people from government to developers, what do they have in common?
Even those big players who do not fully understand Ethereum (royalty, billionaires) know that this is “playing for real.” They trust the “nerds” because the nerds are not driven solely by money. They see Ethereum as the future winner.
Q: What advice do you have for young builders?
Do not fundraise before finding product-market fit (PMF). Money is just fuel; connections and vision are more important. Work with those who are ethical, passionate, and want to do good for society. Do the things that you will be proud of in ten years.
