Appendix: Ethereum’s Roadmap

What is the Ethereum roadmap?

It is a long-term plan that shows how Ethereum will improve over time through major upgrades and hard forks.

Why does Ethereum use phases and upgrades?

To make the network more scalable, efficient, secure, and user-friendly.

What is a hard fork in Ethereum?

A major software update that changes how the blockchain works and requires all users to upgrade

How are updates implemented?

Through coordinated milestones, where different improvements are released step by step.

Why are coordinated milestones important?

They help Ethereum evolve smoothly without disrupting security or stability.

What is “The Merge” in Ethereum?

The Merge is the upgrade where Ethereum switched from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).

Why is The Merge important?

It changed how Ethereum validates transactions and secures the network, making it more efficient and sustainable.

What was the Paris Upgrade?

The Paris Upgrade was the update that officially completed The Merge and turned off Proof of Work.

What was the Beacon Chain?

A separate Proof of Stake chain that was launched earlier to test and prepare PoS for Ethereum.

How did The Merge change Ethereum’s consensus system?

It replaced miners with validators who stake ETH to confirm transactions

How did The Merge affect energy use?

It reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by removing mining.

What is the long-term impact of The Merge?

It prepared Ethereum for future upgrades focused on scaling, security, and performance.

What is “The Surge” in Ethereum?

The Surge is the phase focused on increasing Ethereum’s scalability and transaction speed.

What is the main goal of The Surge?

To increase Ethereum’s capacity to about 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) while staying secure.

How does The Surge improve scalability?

By introducing proto-danksharding and improving how transaction data is handled.

What is proto-danksharding?

A system that stores transaction data more efficiently so rollups can work faster and cheaper.

What are rollups?

Layer 2 systems that bundle many transactions together and submit them to Ethereum.

How does The Surge help rollups?

It gives them cheaper and faster data storage, allowing them to process more transactions.

What problem does proto-danksharding solve?

It prevents rollups from competing with normal mainnet transactions for space.

What is the Fusaka Upgrade?

Fusaka is a major Ethereum upgrade planned for 3 December 2025 that improves scaling, security, and user experience.

Which upgrades does Fusaka combine?

• Osaka (execution layer upgrade)

• Fulu Star (consensus layer upgrade)

What upgrade does Fusaka follow?

It follows the Pectra upgrade.

What is the main aim of the Fusaka Upgrade?

To prepare Ethereum for future growth by improving performance, reliability, and usability

What is PeerDAS?

PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) allows nodes to store only part of Layer 2 data instead of everything.

What are “blobs” in Ethereum?

lobs are special data containers used mainly by rollups to store transaction data cheaply.

How does Fusaka help keep Layer 2 fees predictable?

By improving blob parameters and base-fee controls.

Why are these L1 improvements important?

They make Ethereum more efficient, secure, and cheaper to run.

How does Fusaka improve transaction speed?

through faster cryptographic operations and better block scheduling.

What is the Amsterdam & G-Star Upgrade?

A major Ethereum upgrade planned for end of 2026 that focuses on improving efficiency, storage, and verification.

What is the main goal of this upgrade?

To reduce how much computing power and storage nodes need while keeping the network fast and secure.

How does it help Ethereum nodes?

By lowering resource requirements and making transaction processing more efficient.

What are Verkle trees and why are they important?

They are a new data structure that reduces storage size and makes state verification faster.

How does this upgrade improve transaction verification?

Through Verkle proofs and native Verkle support, which speed up checking large state changes.

Why are hash function costs increased?

To prevent abuse and ensure fair use of network resources.

Why is coordination across clients important?

To make sure execution and consensus clients upgrade smoothly without network problems.

What is The Scourge?

A phase of Ethereum focused on preventing censorship and reducing centralisation risks.

What problem does The Scourge mainly address?

Miner/Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and front-running, which can unfairly reorder transactions.

How does The Scourge reduce MEV?

By improving transaction ordering, introducing fair ordering mechanisms, and using in-protocol proposer-builder separation (PBS).

What is the overall goal of The Scourge?

To ensure fair transaction inclusion, protect users from censorship, and strengthen Ethereum’s security and neutrality.

What is The Verge?

A phase of Ethereum focused on improving efficiency and making block verification easier.

: What is the main technology introduced in The Verge?

Verkle trees, which replace the current data storage system.

How do Verkle trees improve Ethereum?

They reduce the amount of data and computing needed to verify blocks.

What is The Purge?

A phase of Ethereum focused on simplifying the network and reducing technical complexity.

What is the main goal of The Purge?

To lower storage and computing requirements for running a node.

What is history expiration?

A system where nodes no longer need to store all past blockchain data forever.

Why is history expiration important?

It makes running a node cheaper and more accessible.

How does The Purge help decentralisation?

By allowing more people to run nodes, reducing reliance on large operators.

What is The Splurge?

A phase of Ethereum focused on fixing and improving everything that doesn’t fit into the other upgrade categories.

What is the main goal of The Splurge?

To improve Ethereum’s overall efficiency, flexibility, and performance.

What is Account Abstraction?

A system that combines normal user accounts and smart contract accounts into one flexible account type.

Why is Account Abstraction important?

It makes wallets easier to use and allows features like gasless transactions and better security.

What is Proposer/Builder Separation (PBS)?

A system that separates block creation from block validation to improve fairness and reduce centralisation.

What is “Low-Risk DeFi”?

DeFi services like payments, savings, and collateral-backed lending that focus on safety and stability.

Why is low-risk DeFi important for Ethereum’s future?

It provides steady, sustainable income for the network, not just speculative activity.

What problem has Ethereum faced in the past?

Tension between speculative apps (NFTs, memecoins) and useful public services (ENS, privacy tools).

How has DeFi improved over time?

Protocols have matured, making DeFi safer and more reliable.

How does low-risk DeFi support decentralisation?

It gives global, permissionless access to financial services without relying on banks.

Why is low-risk DeFi compared to Google Search?

Because it provides steady revenue that supports the wider ecosystem.

What future systems does low-risk DeFi enable?

Reputation-based lending, prediction markets, and new types of stable assets.

How does low-risk DeFi benefit ETH?

It increases demand for ETH and strengthens the Ethereum economy.