DappLearning Interview with Vitalik: POS, Layer 2 and the Future of Ethereum

On April 7, 2025, Vitalik was interviewed by Yan, the founder of the DappLearning community, at the Pop-X HK Research House event in Hong Kong. The following are the main points of the interview:

Views on POS Upgrade

Vitalik believes that the price changes of BTC and ETH have no direct relationship with POW and POS. He pointed out that one challenge facing ETH is that successful applications in the ecosystem may not bring corresponding value to ETH. To address this, more support is needed for applications that are beneficial to ETH holders and the long-term value of ETH.

PBS Architecture and Centralization Concerns

Regarding concerns that the PBS architecture may lead to centralization of the Builder, Vitalik stated:

1. After using new technologies such as ZK, DAS, etc., the difficulty of block construction and verification can become asymmetric. The cost of verification will become very low, while the cost of construction may increase.

2. Even with super nodes, their power can be restricted in various ways, such as:

   • Attester nodes are responsible for verification, with a lower threshold.
   • The Fossil concept separates the roles of transaction selection and transaction execution.
   • Restrict the rights of major nodes

3. This hybrid architecture is more complex than before, but it allows some nodes to have more computing power while ensuring security and decentralization.

The Relationship Between Layer1 and Layer2

Vitalik believes that there are several issues with the current L2:

1. The progress in security is not fast enough.
2. Interoperability issues between L2s
3. Some applications are more suitable for running on L1, such as DeFi for long-term asset locking.

To this end, Ethereum is promoting multiple L1 scaling solutions, hoping to increase the L1 Gas limit by 10 times by 2026. These solutions include:

• Delayed Execution
• Block Level Access List
• Multidimensional Gas Pricing
• Historical data processing optimization ( EIP44440 )

Views on Cryptography and AI

Vitalik believes:

1. For ZK developers, it is best to master high-level languages without needing to delve into the underlying details.

2. The prospects for FHE and MPC are promising, but attention must be paid to the security issues of the committee.

3. AI may narrow the gap between experts and novices, providing new opportunities for everyone.

Expectations for the Ethereum Ecosystem

Vitalik hopes that developers can:

1. Seize the current opportunity and try ideas that were previously unattainable.
2. Develop applications that have both practical value and sustainable business models.
3. Avoid two extremes: overly idealistic but with few users, or purely speculative applications.

He believes that everyone now has more resources than before, and as long as they find good ideas and execute them well, the chances of success are very high.