What is Lean Ethereum? Explaining Ethereum's Next-Generation Vision Following the Merge

In July 2025, Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, proposed a long-term vision for Ethereum called "Lean Ethereum."

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, positions this concept as "the third major evolution of Ethereum following the Merge in 2022."

Lean Ethereum is a long-term vision aimed at evolving Ethereum into a simpler, stronger, faster, and more secure form for the future.

This concept was introduced by Justin Drake in July 2025. He describes it as "a vision for the next decade and a personal mission," which can be summarized as "eliminating waste and tightening (Lean), possessing strength to withstand threats like quantum computers, and significantly enhancing performance."

Vitalik Buterin also strongly supports this concept, stating that Lean Ethereum is "the third major evolution of Ethereum following the Merge."

Justin Drake explains Lean Ethereum from two perspectives.

Fort Mode (Defensive Perspective)

This perspective aims to make Ethereum "a robust fortress that never stops under any circumstances." It seeks to ensure resilience against state-level attacks, maintain safety even with the advent of quantum computers, and achieve a state where "as long as the internet is running, Ethereum will continue to operate."

Beast Mode (Offensive Perspective)

This perspective focuses on significantly enhancing performance while solidifying defenses. Justin Drake sets a performance goal of approximately 10,000 TPS (transactions per second) on the mainnet (L1) and aims for an extraordinary scale of about 10 million TPS on L2.

Lean Ethereum plans to comprehensively review the three layers that constitute Ethereum's mainnet. Ethereum operates primarily on three layers: consensus, data, and execution, and Lean Ethereum aims to refresh all three.

The long-term vision of Lean Ethereum is translated into an actual upgrade plan called "Strawmap."

Strawmap consists of a vertical axis representing the three layers of "consensus, data, and execution," and a timeline on the horizontal axis that anticipates seven hard forks approximately every six months until 2029.

Lean Ethereum is a long-term vision that aims for a "strong, fast, and simple next-generation Ethereum" over a period of 3 to 4 years. It plans to refresh all three layers of consensus, data, and execution while simultaneously pursuing quantum resistance, significant scaling, and privacy, marking an unprecedented scale of change.

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