Ethereum's Next Decade: From "Verifiable Computers" to "Internet Property Rights"

Forwarded original title: “Ethereum’s Next Decade: From ‘Verifiable Computer’ to ‘Internet Property’”

At Ethereum Devconnect ARG, LambdaClass founder Fede delivered a powerful and thought-provoking keynote. He moved beyond the traditional “world computer” narrative, redefining Ethereum as the first “verifiable computer” in human history. Fede argued that Ethereum’s unique “antifragility”—rooted in mathematics and economic incentives instead of trust—is the essential foundation for establishing internet property rights and supporting a multi-trillion-dollar global economy.

This was not a victory lap, but a sharp wake-up call. With the rise of high-performance blockchains like Solana, Fede warned that the Ethereum community faces a real risk of “death by complacency.” He criticized the “false prosperity” of most L2s that “barely function,” and called out Solidity’s developer experience as “shooting yourself in the foot.” Fede urged the community to break out of its echo chamber and reclaim the ambition and fighting spirit of the “Bronze Age.” Quoting a former Intel CEO, he reminded everyone: in the unforgiving world of technology, “Only the paranoid survive.”

From pushing the performance envelope to 1 Gigagas to building a vision for Lean Ethereum, Fede combined deep technical detail with genuine passion to show how Ethereum can maintain its dominance over the next decade. This is more than a technical roadmap—it’s a manifesto against mediocrity.

Below are the highlights from his speech.

Speaker: Fede (LambdaClass)

Today, I’m discussing Ethereum’s next decade: from “verifiable computer” to “global economy.”

Core Definition: Ethereum Is the First “Verifiable Computer”

In my view, Ethereum is a verifiable computer.

I’ve never been a fan of the “world computer” meme. I think AWS or Google are the true “world computers”—they have massive funding and infrastructure, but you have to trust them. What sets Ethereum apart is its verifiability.

Ethereum is the world’s first computer where computation itself doesn’t require trust—only economic incentives and mathematics. This gives Ethereum a significant edge over AWS or Google Cloud. Traditional cloud services are built on trust, but trust can be broken.

Recently, I saw on Twitter that someone hacked Bing and altered the movie rankings. If you searched “top ten movies,” the results were manipulated. In that scenario, you’re actually trusting the hacker. This kind of thing can’t happen on Ethereum unless the entire network is compromised—which is exceedingly difficult, since you’d have to breach multiple teams and clients, and everyone can observe the attack in real time.

This makes Ethereum antifragile. Whether the attackers are nation-states or private hackers, every attempt only strengthens Ethereum, because it keeps running and secures vast sums of capital.

The Impact of the Verifiable Computer

The verifiable computer ushers in true internet property rights.

• True ownership: You no longer have to click “agree to terms” and hand over your data to tech giants. Instead, your private key puts you in control. The private key is more reliable than any terms of service.
• Global neutrality: Developers from China, traders from Russia, funds from the US, and users from Argentina all compete on equal footing.
• The foundation for AI: In the coming decade, we will tokenize everything—art, land, even artificial intelligence. This is crucial. If AI drives the future, hackers have powerful incentives to tamper with AI parameters. Ethereum is needed to verify that AI operates as intended.

Current Landscape and Product-Market Fit (PMF)

Ethereum has already built a full-fledged economy. It’s not just about a $300 billion market cap—stablecoins now process $3 trillion in monthly transactions, triple the scale of Visa.

Ethereum’s greatest advantage over Visa or the NYSE is composability. All funds, assets, and artwork reside in a single ecosystem and can be exchanged instantly. This creates a flywheel effect. In this respect, Ethereum is less fragmented than global capital markets because it operates around the clock.

Ethereum’s current product-market fit (PMF) boils down to:

1. Decentralized, permissionless verifiability.
2. Privacy (core-layer features we must build).
3. Stablecoins (programmable, private, borderless dollars).

Technical Challenges: The Hard Problems Ahead

To keep winning over the next ten years, I have to air some technical grievances. Here are the challenges I see:

1. Performance

We’re developing the Ethrex client at LambdaClass. My team just reported we’re only 10% behind Reth on performance. Outside of Nethermind, Reth, Geth, and us, most clients struggle with performance.

If we don’t raise hardware requirements for validators, it’s going to be tough to match the performance of competitors like Solana.

This brings up a sensitive issue: Gas Limit. For three years, we’ve chosen not to increase the Gas Limit, which has slowed us down. I believe we can boost speed without sacrificing verifiability. This used to be taboo, but to stay competitive, we need to accelerate. If other execution layers can’t keep up, we can’t wait. Ethereum is bigger than any single team.

I’ve also been reflecting: Is the goal for everyone to run a node at home on a $50 Raspberry Pi? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s enough if verification costs are low (a few thousand dollars or even just a few dollars), without needing an extreme low barrier.

2. Scalability

I think we should raise the Gas Limit by 100x. The cheaper it gets, the more users join. The internet only gave birth to YouTube after bandwidth improved.

I’m also a RISC-V enthusiast—not a fan of Solidity. Solidity doesn’t define Ethereum. It’s contributed a lot, but it has serious issues. I believe RISC-V should be the default standard.

On Layer 2: Frankly, most L2 stacks barely run. If you clone the repo and try to run it, it’s broken. The current incentive is “launch a token, then abandon it and wait for it to die.” If you believe in a rollup-centric roadmap, we must make running rollups extremely simple. We’re working to make Ethrex run L2 with a single command.

3. Interoperability and Decentralization

Recently, AWS went down, and some rollups crashed as well. That’s a problem. The Solana community mocked us, and honestly, they have a point. We need to push to “Stage 2”—we need decentralized sequencers, Based Rollups (leveraging L1 pipelines to build L2), and technologies like CommitBoost for pre-confirmations.

4. Privacy

I’ve received calls from lawyers warning me about major trouble, so this hits home. We need to support all privacy-focused developers (like Roman, Alexei, and the Samurai Wallet team). If I want my mom to use Ethereum, she wouldn’t want her transactions exposed to the world. Privacy rules for development are very unclear right now—we need to fight for them together.

5. Security

There are far too few maintainers for the Solidity compiler—just one or two people on GitHub. It’s the most critical language for Ethereum, but faces huge risks from understaffing. Solidity’s syntax is simple, but it’s easy to introduce vulnerabilities. As someone who’s worked with over 20 languages, writing Solidity often feels self-destructive. We need better compilers, or long-term solutions like RISC-V ZKVM.

6. Post-Quantum Era

We’re collaborating with Justin Drake to build Lean Ethereum. Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum has a major advantage in deploying post-quantum cryptography—we support multi-client implementations and have a more open community, even when it means taking bold steps.

Social and Cultural Challenges: Rejecting Mediocrity

I’m a committed Ethereum supporter—my company depends on Ethereum—but I have to speak frankly:

1. Adopt a “Bronze Age” mindset: Don’t assume “we’ve won or are winning.” Complacency leads to stagnation. Look at Intel—once a leader, now outpaced by NVIDIA and AMD. We need hunger and ambition.
2. Break the closed-door mentality: Science and engineering require open debate. Major decisions like EOF (Ethereum Object Format) shouldn’t be made behind closed doors. If decisions are secret, state actors can infiltrate key decision-makers and compromise the network (see the OpenBSD example).
3. Learn from competitors: I’ve attended every Solana Breakpoint event—not to support Solana, but to learn from rivals. Linux succeeded by copying Solaris’s strengths and open-sourcing them. We need that mentality.
4. Reject the echo chamber: We should pay contrarians. My company partners regularly criticize me—it’s uncomfortable, but it creates a healthy feedback loop. Without a strong culture, great technology can’t last.

What Is LambdaClass Working On?

We’re not just complaining—we’re building:

• Latin American government partnerships: In Argentina (Sobra project), Mexico, and Colombia, we’re using on-chain ID for authentication, KYC, and lending.
• Global infrastructure: Building passport and property rights systems in Africa and Central Asia (e.g., Uzbekistan).
• Technical stack: Building Ethrex (L1 client), L2 stack based on SP1 and Zisk, ZKVM with TMI Labs, and privacy and decentralized AI projects.
• Partners: Collaborating with IRSA (Argentina’s real estate giant) to enable payment channels.

Q&A Session

Q: How do you feel about hosting Devconnect in Argentina right now?
I’m thrilled. It’s wonderful. My mother was here—she finally understands my work. I’m also excited to showcase what we’re building to the world.

Q: What’s the most important initiative today?
Lean Ethereum. I never cared much for the “Ultrasound Money” meme, but Lean Ethereum is like a cathedral. When Justin Drake and I walked through a cathedral in Cambridge, he asked, “Do you think people will look at Ethereum’s design in 500 years the way they look at this cathedral?” I said, “Yes—and you’re one of its architects.”

Q: How much can the Gas Limit increase in the near term?
Thanks to Nethermind’s outstanding engineering (even though I’m not a fan of C#) and our work with Reth, I think we can hit 300–400 Megagas on good servers. Over the next few years, as technology improves, our goal is to reach 1 Gigagas.

Q: You’ve met everyone from government officials to developers. What’s their commonality?
Even those who don’t fully understand Ethereum—royalty, billionaires—know it’s “the real deal.” They trust the “nerds” because we’re motivated by more than money. They see Ethereum as the future leader.

Q: Any advice for young builders?
Don’t raise money before you have product-market fit. Capital is just fuel—relationships and vision matter more. Work with people who are ethical, passionate, and want to make a positive impact on society. Build things you’ll be proud of in ten years.

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1. This article is reprinted from [ChainFeeds Research], original title “Ethereum’s Next Decade: From ‘Verifiable Computer’ to ‘Internet Property’.” Copyright belongs to the original author [ChainFeeds Research]. For any concerns about reprinting, please contact the Gate Learn team; we’ll address it promptly according to our procedures.
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