Vitalik Buterin Explains Why Ethereum Can’t Compete on Speed Alone

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued in his latest post that the network must prioritize bandwidth scaling over latency reduction, noting that physics and the requirements of decentralization fundamentally limit how quickly blockchain consensus can operate.

His technical explanation positions Ethereum as “the world heartbeat” rather than a high-frequency transaction processor, with Layer 2 networks handling speed-intensive applications.

Buterin’s posts follow Ethereum’s recent technical breakthroughs addressing the blockchain trilemma through zero-knowledge EVMs and PeerDAS technology, combined with accelerating on-chain adoption, which has driven 110% growth in new addresses since December’s Fusaka upgrade.

Bandwidth Scaling Offers Safe Path Forward

Buterin explained that increasing bandwidth is a safer technical approach than reducing block times.

“With PeerDAS and ZKPs, we know how to scale, and potentially we can scale thousands of times compared to the status quo,” he wrote, noting that no fundamental physics prevents combining extreme scale with decentralization.

Latency reduction faces greater constraints from the speed of light and the need to support nodes in rural environments worldwide, including home setups outside data centers.

The network must also maintain censorship resistance and anonymity for validators while ensuring economic viability for geographically distributed staking operations.

Buterin acknowledged that moderate improvements remain possible through P2P enhancements and reduced validator counts per slot, potentially delivering 3-6x latency gains to reach 2-4 second block times.

Beyond those limits, the network hits insurmountable physical and economic barriers that cannot be solved through engineering alone.

AI Applications Demand City-Scale Infrastructure

The Ethereum founder argued that artificial intelligence will inevitably require faster infrastructure than any global blockchain can provide.

“If an AI can think 1000x faster than humans, then to the AI, the ‘subjective speed of light’ is only 300 km/s,” Buterin explained, noting that AI agents communicating at machine speed can only achieve near-instant responses within city-scale distances.

This reality means hyper-local applications will require dedicated Layer 2 chains optimized for specific geographic regions or even individual buildings.

While Ethereum’s base layer serves planetary coordination needs, its rollup ecosystem will handle both localized high-speed requirements and expanded global capacity demands.

Buterin dismissed suggestions that Ethereum should become “the world video game server,” instead positioning the mainnet as fundamental infrastructure providing trustless consensus for higher-layer applications.

“Ethereum belongs to Terra, and its L2s will serve both hyper-localized needs in its cities, and hyper-scaled needs planet-wide,” he wrote.

Technical Constraints Define Realistic Limits

Buterin’s 2021 analysis on blockchain scaling established concrete boundaries for node requirements.

Computing power faces practical limits around 5-10% of CPU capacity for block verification due to DoS attack margins, offline sync requirements, battery life considerations, and background network tasks.

Bandwidth constraints similarly limit throughput despite advertised connection speeds, with usable capacity far below theoretical maximums due to multiple applications, provider reliability issues, and peer-to-peer network overhead.

Storage requirements max out around 512 gigabytes for consumer hardware, with larger databases creating exponential verification costs as size increases.

The combination creates interaction effects in which database access costs scale logarithmically with size, meaning a 4x increase in state could result in a 6x increase in verification time.

These fundamental limitations persist even with technical improvements like statelessness and state expiry.

Linux Metaphor Frames Ethereum’s Role

In a separate post today, Buterin compared Ethereum to Linux and BitTorrent, emphasizing how both technologies combine decentralization with mass-scale adoption.

“Linux is quietly depended on by billions of people and enterprises worldwide,” he wrote, noting that governments and major corporations rely on open-source infrastructure without compromising its foundational principles.

The comparison suggests that Ethereum can serve both purist users who demand maximum autonomy and enterprise clients seeking resilient infrastructure.

“What we call trustlessness, they call prudent counterparty risk minimization,” Buterin observed, highlighting alignment between crypto values and corporate risk management.

Recent network data support growing institutional confidence, with new address creation reaching 292,000 per day following December’s Fusaka upgrade.

At the same time, major financial institutions, including JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, are developing Ethereum-based tokenization products for deployment across global markets.