Ethereum is gearing up for significant technical upgrades throughout 2026. The Glamsterdam fork will introduce parallel processing capabilities, a game-changer for network efficiency. More dramatically, the gas limit is getting a major boost—jumping from the current 60 million to 200 million. That's not just an incremental tweak; it fundamentally changes what the network can handle per block.

Validation is shifting too. Instead of the traditional validator model, the network will transition to validating ZK proofs, which opens up entirely new possibilities for scaling. This architectural pivot positions Ethereum L1 itself to hit 10,000 transactions per second—a milestone that would reshape how people think about on-chain throughput.

These aren't isolated improvements; they're interconnected upgrades designed to address Ethereum's historical bottlenecks. The combination of expanded gas limits and ZK-proof validation could redefine what's economically feasible to execute directly on L1.