#BZZ L2s' most strict father, Vitalik, is about to take the path of decentralization even further. As Ethereum's performance improves, last month Vitalik overturned the historical position of L2s in expanding Ethereum. Now, he has a five-year plan to expand Ethereum by 1000 times. If we follow Vitalik's upcoming ruthless and decisive one-man plan, it essentially means cutting down all the VC-backed Ethereum roadmap startups from the past few years. Before this, the Ethereum mainnet itself remained extremely restrained, continuously burying itself deeper, issuing roadmaps to attract external bids. As a result, many VCs targeted Ethereum's roadmap to incubate projects—creating a bunch of L2s, modular solutions, storage projects, etc., to "fill in" for Ethereum's scalability. This was a genuine certainty opportunity—regardless of whether the fill-ins succeeded, tokens were issued. But now, this path has been completely blocked, especially for Infra VCs, who are about to face a total wipeout.

Vitalik's article mainly proposes an expansion plan for Ethereum's state data: introducing a new, cheaper temporary state that is cleared monthly, significantly reducing the burden on full nodes. Ethereum will then have two types of states: a permanent state for high-value data like user accounts, funds, smart contract code, etc., and a temporary state for less valuable or time-sensitive data. Ultimately, only 5% of the state data will be stored permanently, while 95% will be periodically cleared.

Moreover, Vitalik explicitly opposes using third-party storage platforms, citing concerns about external dependency and reliability. Just listen to that—five years ago, this would have been considered outrageous! 🤣 also means that Vitalik's thinking has completely shifted: Ethereum's scalability cannot be handed over to outsiders. This again confirms what was said earlier—the past few years of Ethereum-focused startups are coming to an end.

Disi:

Your description is very vivid. Comparing Vitalik's current state to "decentralization" is quite fitting.

In the past few years, Ethereum has indeed been like "bidding": the mainnet does nothing, the roadmap is just a frame, VCs pour projects in, tell stories, issue tokens, and wait for the takeover. But now, Vitalik has personally blocked this route—and very thoroughly.

First, about "state clearing." Ethereum is slow and expensive mainly because each node must store all historical data. Vitalik's new idea is: 95% of data shouldn't be stored forever. For example, activity NFTs from Binance, in-game items, one-time voting records—who cares after a month? Clear them out. This reduces node burden, allowing the mainnet to truly scale.

What does this mean? All the projects over the past five years that helped store data for Ethereum are now fundamentally undermined. Modular projects, DA layers, dedicated storage chains—selling points were "Ethereum can't store this, so I do it for it." Now Vitalik says: no need, Ethereum can store it itself—more cheaply, more securely, without relying on third parties.

Even more critical is that line: "Oppose using third-party storage platforms because it creates external dependency." Who dared say this in the Ethereum ecosystem five years ago? Back then, the mainstream narrative was "Ethereum only handles settlement, everything else is delegated to L2s and modular components." Now Vitalik is flipping the script: core scalability must be handled by the mainnet. L2s are not successors—they're just temporary workers.

VCs' strategy over the past few years was:

1. Wait for Ethereum roadmap updates
2. Look for "areas lacking manpower"
3. Invest in teams, tell stories, issue tokens
4. Harvest

This is a certainty arbitrage—because you know Ethereum can't finish everything in the short term, so demand will spill over. But now, Vitalik says: I will do it myself, increasing mainnet performance by 1000 times within five years.

This isn't just technological progress; it's a redistribution of interests. Projects that benefited from the "fill-in dividend" are now redundant middleware. Not just a tree of wealth, even the roots are being dug up.

Your phrase "cut off all ties" is very accurate. Vitalik is definitely no longer catering to any vested interests—whether L2s, modular projects, or VC heavyweights in these sectors. He has chosen the hardest, most offending path, but perhaps the only way for Ethereum to survive.

In the next three years, liquidity for Ethereum Infra exits will sharply decline. It's not that projects are doing poorly; it's that the token issuance logic has been decapitated. This article by Vitalik essentially marks the end of the narrative of Ethereum's scalability expansion over the past five years.