🚀 Ethereum Foundation Unveils Its “Strawmap” (2026–2029 Roadmap)

The Ethereum Foundation has introduced a new long-term draft roadmap called the “Strawmap”, outlining Ethereum’s Layer-1 upgrade vision from 2026 through 2029.
Important: This is a strawman roadmap — meaning it’s a coordination draft, not a finalized plan. Changes are expected as research and development progress.
🧭 What Is the “Strawmap”?
The term Strawmap combines “strawman” + “roadmap.”
It serves as a high-level coordination tool to:
Align developers and researchers
Visualize upgrade dependencies
Plan Ethereum’s long-term protocol evolution
The roadmap was shared by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, highlighting structured upgrades and expected hard forks approximately every six months.
📅 Timeline Overview (2026–2029)
Around 7 planned hard forks
One fork roughly every 6 months
Focus: Speed, scalability, security, and privacy at the base layer (L1)
⭐ 5 Core Goals (“North Stars”)
1️⃣ Fast L1 — Seconds-Level Finality
Reduce block times from 12 seconds gradually down to: 8s → 6s → 4s → 3s → potentially 2s
Faster transaction confirmation
Improved user experience and responsiveness
2️⃣ Gigagas L1 — ~10,000 TPS
Increase Layer-1 throughput to around 10,000 transactions per second
Potential integration of embedded zkEVM and real-time proofs
3️⃣ Teragas L2 — ~10 Million TPS
Empower Layer-2 ecosystems
Enable up to 10 million TPS via Data Availability Sampling (DAS)
Strengthen Ethereum’s rollup-centric scaling model
4️⃣ Post-Quantum Security
Prepare Ethereum for future quantum computing threats
Introduce hash-based or post-quantum cryptographic protections
5️⃣ Native L1 Privacy
Built-in privacy features at the protocol level
Shielded/private ETH transfers directly on Layer-1
🧱 Technical Focus Areas
✔ Faster consensus mechanisms
✔ Improved execution layer performance
✔ Enhanced data availability
✔ Cryptographic upgrades
✔ Long-term protocol resilience
⚠ Important Note
This Strawmap is:
A draft vision
Subject to community discussion
Likely to evolve over time
Ethereum’s roadmap has always been iterative and research-driven — and this continues that tradition.
💡 Why This Matters
If implemented successfully, Ethereum could become:
• One of the fastest major Layer-1 blockchains
• Quantum-resistant
• Privacy-enhanced at the base layer
• Capable of supporting massive global-scale applications
This signals Ethereum’s long-term ambition to remain the leading smart contract platform through 2029 and beyond.