Ethereum's Last Standard Fork?

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warns that the upcoming Hegotá upgrade may be the last 'normal' fork for Ethereum, marking a significant shift in the network's evolution.

In a recent post, Buterin explained that while Hegotá will still follow a familiar development style, it could be the final standard fork before the network pivots towards more radically different cryptographic and verification technologies.

Ethereum is moving from a blockchain that replays computation to a 'cryptographic world computer' architecture, which combines blockchains with cryptographic checking, privacy mechanisms, and decentralized components that can operate offchain.

Buterin pointed out that this transition has already begun with earlier milestones such as PeerDAS, which enables nodes to verify data availability by sampling portions of data rather than downloading everything.