Vitalik Buterin Says Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Encryption Could Expand Ethereum's Roadmap

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said blockchain was originally a core tool that was open, neutral, and secure, but it was not scalable and had no privacy protection mechanism. According to ChainCatcher, he made the remarks in a keynote speech at the 12th Blockchain Global Summit.Buterin said zero-knowledge proofs have changed that situation by enabling private transactions and scalable verification, and they have moved from planning into actual EIPs on Ethereum's roadmap. He also said fully homomorphic encryption is beginning to be applied, while indistinguishable obfuscation could also be used on-chain in the future.Beyond privacy, Buterin said parallel block construction and proofs could make extreme scalability possible. He added that industry thinking has shifted from digital assets to digital assets plus information, from a purely on-chain model to a full pipeline involving users, transaction mempools, and the blockchain, and from asking who can send what to who can see what.Buterin said blockchain has gradually evolved from a simple ledger into a cryptography-based secure computing network. He also said that as AI develops, providing cryptographic rules to AI for automated formal verification could greatly improve verification efficiency and allow blockchains to support more use cases.