Vitalik On Hyper-Scaling Ethereum State
Vitalik proposed a barbell approach to hyper-scaling Ethereum state, allowing high-volume states to move to new scalable tiers.
Vitalik's solution for hyper-scaling state.
EF PhD fellowship program.
ENS Explorer alpha release
Blockscout Tor-native explorer.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Vitalik proposes a solution for hyper-scaling Ethereum state. The EF launches a PhD fellowship program. ENS releases an alpha version of its new explorer. And Blockscout releases a Tor-native explorer. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/877 Sponsor: Arkiv is an Ethereum-aligned data layer for Web3.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Njw4tKI9LNZT4gpUir2Dg)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
The price of ETH is down over 12% in the last 24 hours, reaching a low of $1,740. The crypto market cap is currently $2.3 trillion, following a major market sell-off.
Vitalik Buterin proposed a barbell approach to hyper-scaling Ethereum state. The solution keeps existing state fully backwards-compatible but increasingly expensive, while introducing new, opt-in tiered state types that are cheaper and more restrictive, designed for scale. Buterin highlights state growth as a major bottleneck. He notes that even if full nodes don't need full state, builders do, making multi-terabyte state a permission and centralization risk. Alternatives like statelessness come with severe bandwidth and infrastructure costs, while state expiry is hard to make backwards-compatible. The proposed path would allow most high-volume states to move to scalable tiers, while preserving Ethereum's developer-friendly model for core contracts and accounts.
The Ethereum Foundation launched the 2026 PhD Fellowship Program, a new initiative supporting Ethereum-related academic research led by current PhD students across Economics, Political Science, Business, Public Policy, Computer Science, and Urban Planning. The program will award 7 to 8 fellowships, each providing up to $24,000 USD in stipends over a one year period. Priority research themes include decentralized economic models, Ethereum-enabled SME operations, and programmable institutional design. Eligible projects must produce formal academic research and be published as open-access work under a permissive license. Applications are now open to current PhD students through April 1, 2026.
ENS introduced the ENS Explorer Alpha, a transparency tool designed to provide deep visibility into the ENS protocol, now live on testnet. The ENS Explorer serves as the primary source of truth for ENS, offering native ENSv2 support, role and permission management, registries, resolvers, subnames, and full historical event data. Designed to operate independently of ENS Labs infrastructure, the explorer can read data directly from Ethereum and IPFS. The ENS Explorer is still in active development with ongoing feature and UI updates based on user feedback. Power users and developers can access the explorer at explorer.ens.dev.
Blockscout, a blockchain explorer provider, launched a Tor-native Ethereum block explorer, allowing users to browse and verify transaction data using the privacy-preserving Tor browser. The Tor-native .onion service offers a clean, minimal interface and removes tracking-heavy features, enabling block exploration without revealing location or creating a behavioral trail.
ACDC #174 highlights | minutes
ZKP2P rebrands to Peer
Superform goes live on Base
Rainbow launches RNBW airdrop
Vitalik comments on L2 reactions
EF is hiring a comms associate
L2Beat is hiring L2 Educator
ETHStars Opportunity Board
Fileverse Floppy Disk
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Yield launches stYFI
Austin Griffith on Bankless
YO allocation for Tuyo users
Relay raises $170m
Polymarket partners with USDC
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
Fidelity Digital Dollar Live On Ethereum
Fidelity Digital Assets launched its Fidelity Digital Dollar on Ethereum, a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin.
FIDD is live on Ethereum.
Payy Network private L2.
ENS App Alpha release.
Giveth recovers 57 ETH.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Fidelity launches its stablecoin on Ethereum. Payy introduces its private L2 network. ENS releases an alpha version of the ENS App on testnet. And Giveth recovers 57 ETH from TheDAO. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/876 Sponsor: Arkiv is an Ethereum-aligned data layer for Web3.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Ef0IartstE0Wvmjc37GLL)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
Fidelity Digital Assets launched its Fidelity Digital Dollar on Ethereum, a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin, redeemable 1:1 for USD through Fidelity platforms. FIDD already has a market cap of $60 million. The stablecoin targets both retail and institutional investors.
Payy, a stablecoin-focused protocol, introduced Payy Network, a privacy-first, EVM-compatible L2 built for stablecoin payments. Payy Network enables private ERC-20 transfers by default, with no changes required to existing wallets or smart contracts. It leverages chain-native privacy pools that hold ERC-20 tokens, allowing transfers to occur privately within the pool. Privacy Vaults manage the transaction data offchain. Payy Network also supports stealth transactions, where one-time addresses ensure the sender and receiver remain unlinked. Payy Network uses a native ZK precompile, enabling low-cost, high-performance privacy apps. Payy Network is currently live in mainnet beta.
ENS launched the ENS App Alpha release on the Sepolia testnet, a redesign of its web app for registering and managing ENS domain names. The alpha focuses on simplifying the registration experience while remaining self-custodial. It is built on ENSv2, a major upgrade that brings a new registry, new smart contracts, new applications, and the Namechain L2. The new app replaces the previous multi-transaction registration process with a streamlined one-step flow. Users can sign up for Telegram and email notifications for name expiration reminders, sign in using Web2 login methods, and pay with stablecoins. Swaps and cross-chain interactions are abstracted. Existing users used the dashboard to manage names, explore new ENS use cases, and share feedback with ENS.
Cap, an Ethereum stablecoin protocol, announced its Stabledrop for early users, allocating $12 million in cUSD to approximately 19,000 participants of its Frontier program, which helped bootstrap its insured yield product. Cap is currently running its Homestead campaign, which continues to issue points, while details around the Stabledrop claim process will be announced separately. Cap allows users to mint its cUSD stablecoin using USDC and USDT as collateral.
Giveth, a platform for funding public goods, has successfully recovered 57.8 ETH, worth $123,000, that had been sitting in an insecure TheDAO smart contract for the past 10 years. The recovery was carried out by Sam, Jordi Baylina, and Griff Green. The unclaimed ETH will be donated to the TheDAO Security Fund, a new collective dedicated to supporting Ethereum security initiatives.
Optimism to maintain OP Reth
Zknox presents PQ suite
Hegotá proposal deadline
Ethereum hits 70m monthly txs
Lotus Protocol introduced
ZKsync Staking Pilot Program
Prediction markets explorer
Aztec TGE updates
ERC-8004 live on Gnosis Chain
ERC-8004 live on Scroll
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
Vitalik Reframes Role Of L2s
Vitalik Buterin says the original vision of L2s as “Ethereum-branded shards” no longer makes sense.
Vitalik Buterin reframes role of L2s.
Tally introduces an ICO platform.
Y Combinator supports USDC funding.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Vitalik Buterin reframes the role of Ethereum L2s. Tally introduces an ICO platform. And Y Combinator supports funding in USDC. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/875 Sponsor: Arkiv is an Ethereum-aligned data layer for Web3. Arkiv brings the familiar concept of a traditional Web2 database into the Web3 ecosystem.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4X9i7sSpDGQMAKnhXMx2jH)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
In his latest post on X, Vitalik Buterin stated that the original vision of L2s as "Ethereum-branded shards" no longer makes sense. He pointed to slower-than-expected L2 decentralization progress and rapid Ethereum L1 scaling as reasons for the vision change. He suggests viewing L2s as a spectrum of chains with Ethereum backing and varying unique features. He advises L2s to focus on value-add beyond scaling, such as privacy, specialized VMs, and extreme throughput. Vitalik also emphasizes that L2s working with ETH should be at least stage 1 and maximize Ethereum interoperability. Ethereum's native rollup precompile for verifying ZK-EVM proofs will enable secure, trustless interoperability and synchronous composability for L1<>L2 interactions, while allowing L2s to innovate in other areas.
Comments on Vitalik's post:
Onchain governance platform Tally is launching its own ICO platform, powered by Uniswap's Continuous Clearing Auction (CCA) mechanism. The platform enables teams to raise capital transparently, fairly, and accountably, while integrating Tally's governance products and services into a unified system. To demonstrate its capabilities, Tally is hosting its own token sale on the platform and will document the process over the next 60 days. Widely adopted across the Ethereum ecosystem, Tally already supports governance of major projects including Arbitrum, ENS, Uniswap, zkSync, EigenLayer, and Obol. Tally also supports Liquid Staked Tokens (tLSTs), which enable users to earn rewards for delegating and staking.
Y Combinator, one of the leading startup accelerators, is now offering funding in USDC stablecoins on Base. The accelerator highlighted stablecoins' low cost, efficiency, and global reach, as well as the passage of the GENIUS Act, as key reasons for the move. YC expects its startups, whether crypto-focused or not, to leverage crypto in some way, using a better system for payments, banking, and capital raising.
Worldcoin case for PoH
Ethereum hits $59b in DeFi TVL
Argot transparency report
Base supports ERC-8004
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.