Ultimately, precompiles and EVM are both the wrong place to put most cryptography support into Ethereum. The reason is that precompiles and EVM both operate on data that has to be included into the ethereum chain somehow, which realistically means included in a block as calldata. That space is limited - even with PeerDAS and blocks-in-blobs, there's a practical cap of ~8 MB/s before it starts getting uncomfortable. Remember: it's not a blockchain. It's a cryptographic world computer. Any data/computation that does not need to be in the "main thread" of data/execution should not be put into the main thread. Instead, the correct solution is... EIP-8288 maximalism. If you have any heavy computation that's self-contained, compute it and STARK it client-side (this is quickly getting faster and faster, even on phones), and push the STARK through the EIP-8288 recursive aggregation mechanism. The chain sees the fact that the computation was done and what the result is; it never needs to see the actual data and computation. This way everyone can use whatever cryptography they want, the Ethereum chain can be lean, and we never need to add more precompiles again.

London, you are beautiful.

Vitalik: Ethereum is Becoming More Than a Blockchain Speaking at the 2026 Shanghai Blockchain International Week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a broader vision for where Ethereum is heading. His main point: Ethereum is evolving from a blockchain that executes everything into a global system focused on computation, privacy and verification. Here are the key ideas: 1/ ZK is becoming the foundation → Instead of every node doing the same computation, users or other systems can do the work and generate a proof. Ethereum only needs to verify that proof. 2/ Privacy becomes programmable → Vitalik said blockchain is moving beyond simply answering “Who can send what?” The next question is “Who can see what?” This means applications could control which information is visible without exposing everything publicly. 3/ Scaling through proofs → Complex computations can be split, processed in parallel and compressed into proofs before being verified on Ethereum. This could allow much more computation without putting all of it directly on-chain. 4/ Ethereum becomes a full pipeline → Vitalik described a future involving user devices, private transaction pools, multiple participants, block construction, L2s and finally Ethereum for verification. Ethereum does not need to perform every step itself. 5/ AI changes development → AI can help developers write, test and formally verify increasingly complex cryptographic systems. Vitalik believes this can make advanced Ethereum infrastructure both faster to build and more secure. 6/ Quantum resistance matters → Ethereum is also moving toward quantum-safe cryptography, with STARK-based systems playing an important role in the longer-term roadmap. Ethereum's future may not simply be about making the L1 faster. It is about building a trust layer where computation can happen anywhere, privacy can be programmed, and complex results can be mathematically proven and verified on-chain.