What will the future of Ethereum look like? Vitalik's recent insights provide a clear answer — Ethereum needs to evolve into a truly trustless infrastructure, rather than a system that relies on continuous developer maintenance to stay alive. It sounds like old news, but the details reveal ambition.

His core idea is particularly interesting: Ethereum will eventually achieve "protocol immutability" — meaning, at a certain point, updates can be halted, and the entire network can still operate healthily for decades. This doesn't mean Ethereum will never upgrade again, but rather that upgrades should be optional, not mandatory.

How to do this specifically? Several key directions:

**Post-quantum security is an urgent issue.** The threat of quantum computers is not science fiction; early planning is essential.

**Scalability must be fundamentally addressed.** Solutions like ZK-EVM and PeerDAS are not just performance optimizations but aim to create sustainable architecture. The state model must be lightweight, capable of supporting growth for ten, twenty, or even fifty years.

**Account abstraction must be fully realized.** This will significantly upgrade user experience and make permission management more flexible.

At the core, Vitalik is asking a profound question: if developers disappear, can Ethereum still survive? The answer should be yes — and this is precisely what a true public infrastructure should look like.