Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced a new virtual machine, leanVM, which aims to significantly enhance the efficiency of scaling the network through the use of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs).
This is reported by Finway
leanVM – An Innovative Virtual Machine for Improving Ethereum’s Scalability
Buterin reported that this year the team has made significant progress in ensuring the long-term scalability, decentralization, and resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem. According to him, key milestones are already approaching on the short-term roadmap, with particular attention drawn to the proposal for the minimal virtual machine leanVM, optimized for working with zero-knowledge proofs (zkVM).
leanVM is designed to enhance the efficiency of XMSS aggregation and recursion. At its core is a four-instruction set architecture (ISA), multi-linear STARKs, and the application of cryptographic techniques such as logup-lookups. According to the developers’ estimates, this allows for a substantial reduction in commitment costs compared to the already known Cairo architecture.
The team plans to increase the speed of recursion execution tenfold — currently, this metric stands at 2.7 seconds, but a significant acceleration is expected in the future.
“The lean Ethereum team has done truly amazing work this year, advancing on all fronts to ensure the long-term scalability, decentralization, and resilience of Ethereum. I expect all these ideas to come into play around the same time that the short-term scaling roadmap reaches key milestones,” emphasized Buterin.
Simplicity of Protocols and Future Network Updates
Vitalik Buterin emphasized the importance of simplicity in protocol development. In his view, reducing the amount of code for each element allows for the creation of more reliable and aesthetically refined solutions. He also explained that the lean roadmap intentionally lags behind the short-term scaling phases to be ready for implementation precisely when the core elements are already functioning on the mainnet.
Ethereum developers also plan to release a major update called Fusaka in November 2025, and recently, on May 7, 2025, a successful update named Pectra was already implemented in the network.