Buterin Says Hegotá May Be Ethereum’s Last Conventional Fork

Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum’s Hegotá upgrade, planned for 2027, is likely to be the network’s last conventional fork, before development shifts toward cryptographic systems that would make proofs, formal verification and quantum-resistant security more central. The long-range direction remains a proposal, and Hegotá is still in early planning. Buterin set out the view in a September 27 essay, describing Hegotá as the last upgrade whose features and underlying approach would look familiar to someone who knew Ethereum around 2015. He said subsequent work would involve technologies including recursive STARKs, a form of cryptographic proof, automated formal verification, optimized consensus and quantum safety. The proposed transition would change how the network verifies activity. Rather than requiring nodes to download and reexecute every block, Buterin’s vision has them increasingly check cryptographic proofs and use data-sampling methods. Some computation could occur offchain, with Ethereum verifying results and maintaining settlement and shared records. The sources describe this as a future design, not a completed change to the network.