Vitalik Buterin Sets Bandwidth and Decentralization as Priorities for Ethereum Scaling in 2026

On January 8, 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reiterated that the protocol should focus on bandwidth scaling rather than chasing ultra-low latency, arguing that physics and decentralization constraints limit consensus speed. He highlighted PeerDAS and zero-knowledge proofs as the core path to expand capacity by potentially thousands of times, while Layer 2 networks serve localized, high-frequency use cases such as AI agents. Following the Fusaka upgrade in December, new Ethereum address creation has climbed 110%, with daily new addresses reaching 292,000 alongside growing institutional tokenization initiatives.