Ethereum Shifts Focus to Base-Layer Strength as Competition Heats Up

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a plan to refine the Ethereum network by reinforcing its foundations in privacy and security while simplifying its overall architecture. His proposal does not involve launching a new blockchain. Instead, it focuses on coordinated improvements to the existing system aimed at boosting efficiency and clarity without altering its fundamental structure.

Ethereum Pushes Key Upgrades

As competition heats up in the crypto space, Ethereum is moving forward with major upgrades. Buterin’s latest proposal aligns with the timeline set by Ethereum developers for the Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL), scheduled for the Hegota hard fork in late 2026. These initiatives, combined with enhancements like account abstraction, underline the network’s ongoing evolution and commitment to innovation.

Meanwhile, BNP Paribas Asset Management is exploring Ethereum for a blockchain pilot, issuing tokenized shares of a French money market fund via Asset Foundry. These shares will function under a permissioned model, ensuring that only approved participants can hold or transfer them while maintaining full regulatory compliance.

FOCIL is designed to strengthen Ethereum’s fairness by ensuring transactions are reliably processed:

• Validators are required to include legitimate transactions, ensuring important activity is not skipped.
• Fork-choice rules and inclusion lists guide validator committees in enforcing which transactions are included.
• If a block omits valid transactions, the chain can temporarily fork, allowing those transactions to be added over a short sequence of blocks, reinforcing Ethereum’s censorship resistance.

Shifting technical priorities

For several years, Ethereum’s scaling strategy has relied heavily on rollups, moving execution to Layer 2 networks while keeping the base layer streamlined. Recent statements from Buterin, however, indicate a growing focus on strengthening the core protocol itself, rather than depending primarily on rollups to improve scalability and user experience.

In a post on X on 19 February, Buterin outlined Ethereum’s key technical priorities for the year, focusing on security and long-term resilience:

• The network will undergo more rigorous security testing, prepare for quantum-resistant cryptography, and enhance tools for assessing geographic decentralization.
• Work under the Kohaku initiative continues, developing trustless RPC systems, social recovery features, and local transaction simulation.
• Looking further ahead, structural upgrades are planned, including integrating zero-knowledge proofs directly into Layer 1 validation through the Beam Chain concept, marking a deeper evolution of the protocol.

Ethereum Refocuses on Core Architecture

Although the rollup-centric approach has increased throughput, it has also added complexity to liquidity distribution and user experience. As rival platforms emphasize speed and simplicity, Ethereum’s leadership appears to be reassessing architectural priorities. The current strategy places greater emphasis on reinforcing base-layer authority and reducing reliance on fragmented Layer 2 ecosystems or parallel EVM chains. Focus is shifting from raw transaction capacity toward strengthening foundational principles, such as maintaining fairness, censorship resistance, and strong cryptography.

Whether this pivot is a defensive move against high-performance competitors or a natural stage in Ethereum’s maturation remains uncertain. Still, Buterin has expressed confidence that “Ethereum will emerge from the year a far stronger, more powerful, and more self-sovereign protocol than what it was entering this year.”

Meanwhile, Ethereum has been trading in a range between $1,900 and $2,120 since the start of the month. Despite this sideways movement, CryptoQuant data shows that whale investors are holding steady rather than selling, with increased buying at lower levels signaling continued confidence among large holders as the asset consolidates.