The following is a guest post and opinion of Rostyslav Bortman, Founder of Ethereum Ukraine.

Even in wartime Kyiv, innovation doesn’t pause. At ETHKyiv 2025, more than 100 hackers proved it—shipping privacy-first dApps, competing for grants, and showing what’s possible when the world’s toughest challenges meet Web3 grit.

But the real shockwaves came from the founders themselves: Vitalik Buterin and Tomasz K. Stańczak, Executive Director at the Ethereum Foundation, who both appeared as the event’s online speakers, dropped two bombshells—400 TPS on Ethereum L1 this year, and a near future where anyone can run a full node on their smartphone.

So what’s next for the protocol? When does 400 TPS arrive, and what does “Ethereum on your phone” actually mean for developers and users? Here’s what we learned at ETHKyiv 2025.

Next-Gen UX: Nodes on a Phone

Vitalik Buterin’s keynote at ETHKyiv 2025 cut straight to Ethereum’s core roadmap. The biggest reveal:

“Pretty soon you’ll be able to spin up a node on your smartphones and even smartwatches.”

According to Buterin, instead of relying on servers with terabytes of storage, soon users will be able to run a full Ethereum node “without heavy-duty resources.” This first-of-its-kind case will be possible thanks to zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (zkEVMs) that the Ethereum Foundation is currently implementing.

zkEVMs are making nodes drastically lighter, cutting storage through verifying transactions without revealing and importing any information about them.

On Ethereum’s L2s, zkEVMs already cut transaction costs by up to 90% and settle in their finality under three seconds. Buterin said the next step is bringing these improvements to the Ethereum mainnet, making blockchain interactions on it as fast and affordable as traditional web applications.

400 TPS with 3-Slot Finality by 2026

At ETHKyiv 2025, Tomasz K. Stańczak, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, spelled out exactly what’s next for Ethereum’s backbone: real performance gains on the mainnet itself.

He revealed that by the end of 2026, Ethereum will move to 3-Slot Finality (3SF), slashing average transaction confirmation time from 15 minutes down to only 36 seconds. For users, this will bring the experience of instant traditional digital payments while keeping all the benefits of decentralization.

Stańczak laid out the near-term milestones:

Ethereum L1 will hit 400 transactions per second (TPS) by the end of 2025.

Block gas limits will reach 100 million this year, with a jump to 60 million per block in a month or two (as of publication date—ed.).

For context: scaling Ethereum L1 is essential because it anchors the entire ecosystem, providing the security, settlement, and censorship resistance Layer 2s depend on. With faster mainnet throughput, users get greater assurance their transactions are finalized on a decentralized, global network—not bottlenecked by L2 operators.

As Vitalik Buterin summed up:

“The goal is to make Ethereum more private, more censorship-resistant, and at the same time, so easy that even people far from tech feel safe using it every day.”

What’s Really Fueling Ethereum’s Value and Mass Adoption?

For me and all the Ethereum followers, some big questions have always remained: what actually underpins Ethereum’s value, and what could trigger mass adoption?

When I pressed both Vitalik Buterin and Tomasz Stańczak for answers at ETHKyiv 2025, they each zeroed in on different but connected drivers.

Tomasz pointed to three non-negotiables: privacy, data protection, and transparency. According to him, these are precisely what enterprise clients and regular users now expect from any blockchain platform.

“Ethereum is a global network, and increased adoption directly boosts the value of the whole ecosystem,” he explained.

The more Ethereum is used for real-world utility—by businesses and by individuals—the more demand, and ultimately, value accrues.

Vitalik, meanwhile, framed the adoption question around financial utility. His thesis: mass adoption comes when Ethereum becomes the rails for real-world assets, particularly tokenized stocks and bonds.

“They’re the gateway to mass adoption and the bridge between traditional finance and Web3,” he said.

With heavyweights like BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, and Coinbase actively leveraging Ethereum for asset tokenization, we’re already seeing the lines blur between traditional finance’s $117 trillion market and Web3 infrastructure.

In short: Ethereum’s real value isn’t just speculative, but it’s being built right now at the intersection of security, privacy, and practical financial applications. That’s where mass adoption starts to look inevitable.

Why ETHKyiv 2025 Matters for Ukraine and Beyond

ETHKyiv 2025 indeed stood out for its access to global thought leaders. Despite all the war-related risks, developers here heard first-hand insights from Ethereum’s most influential builders.

As Stańczak himself described it:

“Enterprise, DeFi, explorations, AI, research, day-to-day problems, working with people—we have to understand the direction and give feedback. A lot of it.”

His daily routine—hours spent answering questions from developers—underscores how Ethereum’s power lies in its people, not just its protocol.

Crucially, ETHKyiv 2025 was never just another tech event on the calendar. Held against the backdrop of an ongoing war, it became living proof of something bigger: even in the darkest times, Ukraine’s tech community chooses to build, learn, and connect with the global ecosystem.

Throughout the hackathon, the wartime context was impossible to ignore, yet it wasn’t a shadow but a driving force. Performances by Moisei Bondarenko, the violinist-soldier whose music echoes through liberated Ukrainian cities, reminded everyone that innovation and humanity must go hand in hand. So did the tactical medicine session led by combat medic Artem Rudy, bringing practical skills and a sense of shared resilience to the room.

This is what set ETHKyiv 2025 apart: it was a gathering of minds and hearts, a testament to the persistence of community, curiosity, and shared values—even in wartime. The world watched not just for the tech, but for the spirit of resilience and solidarity that Ukraine’s builders brought to the stage.

Mentioned in this article

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake unveiled the “Lean Ethereum” proposal on July 31 that reframes the base layer around the imperatives of survivability against nation-state and quantum threats and orders-of-magnitude performance gains without sacrificing decentralization.

The new guidelines were dubbed “fort mode” and “beast mode,” respectively.

Published on the Ethereum Foundation blog, the vision argued that the network can simultaneously harden security and radically scale by anchoring the mainnet in hash-based cryptography and restructuring all three protocol sublayers, which are consensus, data, and execution.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Drake recently addressed the concept during an ETH-focused event in Berlin.

Fort mode and beast mode

Drake’s security thesis highlights that Ethereum must run for decades, even centuries, under adversarial conditions. 

According to the roadmap, “if the internet is up, Ethereum is up” is the goal. On performance, Lean Ethereum targets roughly 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on mainnet via aggressive vertical scaling and approximately 1 million TPS on layer-2 (L2) blockchains via expansive horizontal scaling. 

He added that enabling “moon-math” is no longer aspirational, suggesting real-time zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) for execution and data availability sampling (DAS) for data throughput. 

A complementary usability aim is full-chain verification on consumer devices, such as browsers, phones, and wallets.

Three “lean” sublayers

Lean Ethereum proposes coordinated upgrades across three different layers. The first is “Lean consensus,” or Beacon Chain 2.0, focused on hardening the Beacon Chain for maximum security and decentralization, with near-instant finality measured in seconds.

Lean data (Blobs 2.0) is the second layer. The goal is to enable post-quantum “blobs” with granular sizing to preserve a calldata-like developer experience while boosting throughput.

Lastly, Lean execution (EVM 2.0) consists of a minimal, SNARK-friendly instruction set that preserves EVM compatibility and network effects but accelerates proving and verification.

Together, these changes aim to deliver “performance abundance” under non-negotiable continuity and simplicity constraints.

Hash-based crypto as the standard fabric

Lean Ethereum treats the hash function as the fundamental primitive across layers. Aggregate signatures in consensus supplanting Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS), hash-based commitments replacing Kate, Zaverucha, and Goldberg (KZG) in the data layer, and hash-centric zkVMs streamlining execution verification. 

The approach is designed to simultaneously future-proof against quantum adversaries while harmonizing with the rapid rise of SNARKs across the stack.

Drake said that Lean Ethereum is as much an engineering aesthetic as a roadmap. The concept is based on minimal modules, encapsulated complexity, formal verification, and provable security and optimality. 

The emphasis on “lean craft” seeks to prune legacy complexity while standardizing on primitives that are easier to reason and verify.

Mentioned in this article

Ethereum’s throughput ticked up on Sunday as more validators signalled their support for increasing Ethereum’s gas limit to 45 million units, which will reduce transaction fees and enable improved network scaling.  

Ethereum’s gas limit rose to over 37.3 million units on Sunday, according to Etherscan, up almost 3% from levels late last week, while several blocks were proposed with higher gas limits.

The latest gas limit increase represents the first significant climb since February, when it was raised from 30 million to 36 million.

Improved transaction throughput

Higher gas limits mean more transaction throughput on Ethereum’s layer-1 network, and validators can automatically adjust the limit by about 0.1% per block when they signal support for changes.

Ethereum throughput ticked up to just below 18 transactions per second over the weekend, according to Chainspect. It has also risen since the last gas limit increase when TPS was around 15. 

Validators agree to “pump the gas”

The weekend gas limit increase came as nearly half of all staked Ether (ETH) is now signaling support to raise the gas limit to 45 million or higher through a grassroots “pump the gas” campaign.

“Almost exactly 50% of stake are voting to increase the L1 gas limit to 45 million,” observed Vitalik Buterin on Sunday.

Currently, 47.2% of staked validators are in favor of higher gas limits, according to GasLimits.pics.

Pump the gas 

The gas limit refers to the maximum amount of gas spent on executing transactions or smart contracts in each block. Gas is the Ether fee required to conduct a transaction or execute a smart contract on the network.

Ethereum developers launched the “pump the gas” campaign in March 2024 to initially raise the Ethereum gas limit from 30 million to 40 million, which they claimed would reduce transaction fees on layer 1.

Buterin noted that recent Geth, the most popular Ethereum node client, team improvements make these scale increases safer with new archive node optimizations.

Related: More than 50% of validators signal to increase ETH gas limit

Ether activity and price continue higher

Ethereum network activity has also increased in recent months, with an uptick in daily transactions from around 1.1 million in April to current levels around 1.4 million, according to Etherscan. 

The uptick in network activity has correlated with an increase in price, with the asset gaining a whopping 54% over the past month. 

Ether topped $3,800 briefly in a seven-month high on Sunday as corporate treasuries and exchange-traded funds continue to load up. 

Magazine: Outrage as $1.8B ‘DGCX’ crypto scam ringleader mocks victims: Asia Express

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ethereum-is-scaling-tps-gas-limit-up-as-validators-back-45m-target/feed/ 0 48821 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/solana-hitting-1m-tps-memecoin-rug-pull-seizures-to-put-sol-on-us-digital-asset-stockpile-radar/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/solana-hitting-1m-tps-memecoin-rug-pull-seizures-to-put-sol-on-us-digital-asset-stockpile-radar/#respond Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:47:45 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/solana-hitting-1m-tps-memecoin-rug-pull-seizures-to-put-sol-on-us-digital-asset-stockpile-radar/

Somnia has launched its Developer Network (Devnet), providing developers and Web3 users access to its high-performance blockchain technology. Positioned as the “dream computer” for a fully on-chain world, Somnia is designed to support reactive, mass-consumer applications such as games, decentralized finance (DeFi), social finance (SocialFi), and metaverse projects.

Somnia Devnet Innovation and Performance Metrics

In internal testing, Somnia’s Devnet has demonstrated the ability to process a staggering 400,000 transactions per second (TPS), achieving transaction finality in under a second. On top of that, transaction costs remain below one cent, even under high network loads.

Somnia’s performance is due to innovations in execution, database, networking and consensus. The platform’s database has a read-and-write time of between 15 to 100 nanoseconds, reducing latency significantly. The advanced networking can also transmit 10 to 20 times more data between nodes.

Moreover, full EVM compatibility allows developers to use familiar tools and languages and build decentralized applications that require real-time responsiveness.

Furthermore, by allowing instant reactions to on-chain events directly in Solidity, Somnia opens possibilities for fully decentralized applications like interactive games and live event platforms. This capability looks to enhance user experience and broaden the scope of applications that can be effectively deployed on the blockchain.

Developer Support with $10 Million Grant

To build a robust developer ecosystem, Somnia is inviting developers to apply for whitelisting to join its initial developer cohort. Also, the company has announced a $10 million grant program aimed at supporting developers with funding, technical guidance, and go-to-market strategies.

Early infrastructure partners include Ankr, which will provide Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services to enhance network connectivity and reliability.

Hemera’s Social Scan will power the block explorer, allowing users to monitor blockchain transactions. Additionally, thirdweb will offer tools for developing EVM-compatible decentralized applications, simplifying the development process.

Public Testing

Somnia’s Devnet will be open for public testing during certain hours, allowing users to interact with decentralized applications such as a decentralized exchange (DEX), NFTs, and games.

With this approach, they intend to gather valuable feedback and test the platform’s capabilities in a live environment. Users can request Somnia Test Tokens (STT) through a faucet on the platform to participate in testing.

Finally, developers and users interested in exploring Somnia’s technology can find more information about Devnet access, the grant program, and the whitelisting process on their website. With the launch of its Devnet, Somnia aims to bring more data and functionality on-chain, potentially influencing how decentralized applications develop in the future.

Editor’s note: Written with the assistance of AI – Edited and fact-checked by Jason Newey.

We recently caught up with John Vibes, Somnia’s Chief Vibe Officer and the creative force behind their content.  With over a decade of experience in the crypto space, John has seen the industry evolve dramatically.

In our interview, John shared how Somnia’s newly launched DevNet and their “Dream Computer” aim to allow developers to build anything they can dream of. He highlighted the advantages for developers building on Somnia, especially its capability of handling 400,000 transactions per second. John also explained how this performance unlocks new possibilities like reactive applications. If you’re wondering what Somnia’s cooking up for the future of blockchain, you’ll definitely want to read this interview.

You’ve been in the crypto space for over a decade. How have you seen the industry evolve, especially as it becomes more mainstream?

John Vibes: When I got into the industry, the space was not really about making money the way it is now. It was very ideological, with tons of anarchists and hackers who had dreams of changing the world with magic internet money. Wall Street didn’t take us seriously, but now that they do, and in many ways, they have consumed the industry. This cultural shift has been hard to handle because I feel very out of place these days, but I guess at least Wall Street will pump our bags.

John Vibes – ‘Chief Vibe Officer’ at Somina

Somnia is known as the “Dream Computer.” What exactly does this mean, and how does it set Somnia apart from other Layer 1 Blockchains?

John Vibes: When Vitalik Buterin was originally pitching his idea for Ethereum, he called it the “World Computer,” so the “Dream Computer” is riffing off that early blockchain terminology. We call Somnia the “Dream Computer” because it has the performance capabilities to allow developers to build anything they can dream of.

What role has Improbable played in shaping Somnia’s blockchain infrastructure, especially considering their experience with platforms like Yuga Labs’ Otherside?

John Vibes: Improbable has played a crucial role in the development of the Somnia Blockchain, and they will continue to be a major partner on our journey.

With Improbable announcing the DevNet launch for Somnia, what should developers look forward to, and why should they choose to build on the platform?

John Vibes: Unlike many Devnets that are closed to the public, Somnia is open for public testing during specific hours, which allows the development team to gather valuable community feedback and fully stress-test our network’s capabilities under real-world conditions.

Public users will be able to test out our first applications with Somnia Test Tokens that can be collected for free from a faucet on the Devnet. These applications will include the first exchanges, NFTs and games. Users will also be able to track the network’s transactions through the block explorer.

To help early-stage developers succeed, Somnia is launching a $10 million grant program and providing access to technical guidance, funding, and go-to-market strategies, helping developers bring their ideas to life on Somnia, whether they’re building games, DeFi protocols, or immersive metaverse experiences. By joining Somnia’s ecosystem, developers can take advantage of our high-performance infrastructure, ensuring that their applications can scale effectively and reach global audiences.

You’ve spoken previously about creating a fair and equitable decentralized economy. What are some of the ways Somnia is working to make that vision a reality?

John Vibes: Somnia is building a future where the value flows between the participants of platforms instead of flowing straight up to the owners of the platforms. We want to make it possible for people to build decentralized applications where the users, founders and workers have a shared stake and ability to benefit from the large platforms they participate in.

I see a lot about Somnia’s 400k TPS capabilities. How does Somnia achieve these speeds?

John Vibes: There are a few major innovations that make this possible. First, there’s our new consensus mechanism, MultiStream Consensus, where each validator runs its own data chain to increase throughput. We also have advanced compression algorithms, and we’ve also built our own custom database, called ICEdb.

What are some advantages for developers building on Somnia?

John Vibes: We’re EVM compatible, so Ethereum developers can work with familiar tooling and easily port over Ethereum applications. We’re also offering a $10 million grant program, along with go-to-market and developer support.

What are some new use cases and features that Somnia’s performance capabilities unlock?

John Vibes: 400k TPS makes a lot of new things possible, but one of the most interesting things that we have been talking about is the possibility of reactive applications. This means applications that respond to live events. So, if something happens in the real world, this can trigger an activity in an application. For Example, you can walk into a store and get an NFT for being a frequent visitor. This can also work great for games, where the gaming experience can change based on things that happen in the real world.

Finally, what’s next for Somnia as it continues to grow? Are there any major developments we should be looking out for?

John Vibes: We are in the process of rolling out our Devnet now, which will allow the public to test out our blockchain for the first time. We will be allowing whitelisted developers to start building their apps, and we also have a $10 million grant program to help kick-start the ecosystem. After that, we will enter the testnet phase, where the blockchain will be entirely open to public development, and open around the clock for testing. After that, it will be time for mainnet!

A big thank you to John Vibes for sharing his thoughts and enthusiasm with us. We’re excited to see how his vision for Somnia continues to innovate in the blockchain space.

Somnia, a Layer-1 blockchain designed for apps that need high-speed, reliable performance, has announced a set of Devnet test results that may change what people expect from blockchain technology. The team revealed that, under conditions meant to mirror everyday use, the network handled up to 1.05 million ERC-20 token transfers per second (TPS).

High Throughput: 300,000 NFT Mints and 50,000 Trades Per Second

Somnia also showed off the ability to mint 300,000 NFTs each second—digital collectibles tracked on the blockchain—while maintaining an average block time of just 100 milliseconds.

In another highlight of the Devnet, Somnia managed 50,000 Uniswap trades per second across 100,000 accounts, mimicking real-world usage. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange protocol used for swapping tokens, so pushing 50,000 trades every second suggests Somnia can handle huge spikes of activity without slowing down.

Each test was carried out across 100 different nodes in multiple regions, all running on powerful hardware with as many as 32 virtual CPUs and 120GB of RAM. Network delays remained below one second, around 900 milliseconds, while the system processed about 50 “Gigagas” per second—a measure of how much data can be handled for executing blockchain transactions.

Cutting-Edge Technology Under the Hood

Somnia’s architecture, developed by Improbable, relies on a custom EVM compiler and advanced compression methods to keep things running fast and cheap. EVM stands for Ethereum Virtual Machine—basically the part of the blockchain that processes smart contracts. With a custom EVM, Somnia fine-tunes how transactions are processed to hit high speeds.

A highlight here is IceDB, a specialized database with read-and-write speeds measured in nanoseconds (15 to 100 ns). That’s extremely quick, helping keep transaction costs below a penny.

In explaining the remarkable numbers in the Devnet test, Paul Thomas, Somnia’s Founder and CEO, said, “Our technology is designed to support the demanding requirements of high-performance dApps while maintaining exceptional performance and cost-efficiency, and these impressive results validate our approach.”

He added, “These results have exceeded our expectations, showcasing Somnia’s ability to push past the usual limitations of blockchain technology. We’re opening the door to a new era of fully on-chain applications where speed and scalability are no longer barriers for developers.”

Public Testnet and What Comes Next

Somnia’s next big move is launching a public testnet so developers and community members can see firsthand how these speeds hold up in a broader setting. Early adopters will be able to experiment with building gaming platforms, social networks, or finance apps right on the chain—without worrying about slow transaction times or pricey fees.

Looking ahead, the team says it will keep improving Somnia’s core technology. Focusing on both speed and affordability hopes to spark a wave of new on-chain experiences that were previously impossible due to the limits of older blockchains. If the Devnet results are any sign, Somnia could be setting a whole new pace for Web3 innovation.