Ethereum Will Enter "God Mode" in 2026 Vitalik Buterin shared his vision for 2026, which he believes will be a pivotal year for the Ethereum blockchain: 1. Regaining User Control (Self-Sovereignty and Trustlessness) ❌Problem Ethereum was designed to allow anyone to run their own "node" (an independent computer that checks and verifies the blockchain). However, over time, this has become increasingly difficult on a regular laptop. ✅Solution By 2026, technologies like ZK-EVM (a method for verifying transaction validity without revealing all information) and BAL (likely a tool to improve node efficiency) will make running a full node at home easy and convenient again. This means you can verify the entire Ethereum network yourself without trusting anyone. 2. Verifying Acquired Data ❌Problem When using Ethereum applications (dApps), you typically connect via "RPC" (Remote Procedure Call, similar to an instant messaging tool for retrieving data from the blockchain). ✅Solution Helios is a tool that allows you to re-verify the authenticity of these RPC data, ensuring they haven't been tampered with, thus avoiding blind trust in data providers. 3. Privacy Improvements ✅Solution Tools like ORAM and PIR (advanced privacy technologies) allow you to request specific data from the blockchain without anyone knowing your request. This prevents your activity from being tracked and sold to third parties (such as advertisers or data brokers). Privacy User Experience: Make private payments as simple and convenient as public payments—without extra hassle. Privacy Censorship Resistance: Utilize standards like ERC-4337 (for smarter wallets) and upcoming features to send private transactions that cannot be blocked or censored without the possibility of a public "broadcaster" monitoring or interfering. 4. Better Wallets ❌Problem Crypto wallets often use "mnemonic phrases" (secret words used to recover an account). If lost or stolen, you could lose all your data. ✅Solutions Social Wallet Recovery and Time Locks: These tools allow you to recover your wallet with the help of trusted friends or through a time delay (e.g., after a specific period). Hackers cannot immediately steal data, but they also cannot create backdoors that companies like Google can exploit. 5. More Secure Application Interfaces ❌Problems Many decentralized applications (dApps) rely on centralized servers for their user interfaces (UIs), which can be offline, hacked, or rendered inaccessible to users. ✅Solutions Move to on-chain UIs using IPFS (Decentralized File System): Store your application directly on a blockchain or distributed network.