BroadChain reports that Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech at the ETH Hong Kong Community Hub opening event, disclosing that Ethereum's L1 computing scalability target is a 1000x improvement, with the team now in the active implementation phase. He emphasized that L2 should not simply replicate L1 functions but should provide capabilities that L1 cannot achieve, such as privacy, low latency, and high throughput.
Regarding quantum resistance, Vitalik proposed a specific technical roadmap: replacing elliptic curve signatures with hash-based or lattice-based signatures, then compressing on-chain space usage through STARK aggregation, with deployment expected within 3-5 years. He warned that AI could autonomously discover all client DoS vulnerabilities within 2-3 years, replaying the 2016 Shanghai DevCon attack, which has become the highest security priority for the Ethereum Foundation.
Reflecting on his interactions with the Chinese community, Vitalik noted that during his first visit to China in 2014, Huobi already had hundreds of employees, while US-based Coinbase and Kraken had not yet reached a hundred. He specifically mentioned the RANDAO whitepaper contributed by Chinese developer Qian Youcai, which later evolved into Ethereum's mechanism for selecting the next block proposer.
On L1 scalability, Vitalik stated that achieving a 1000x improvement is feasible but faces numerous challenges, and scalable ERC-20 tokens will differ significantly from current versions. He believes that core Ethereum principles cannot be entirely detached from L1, so L1 itself must be substantially expanded. When new technological waves emerge, they create enormous opportunities for new generations—because no one has ten years of ZK development experience, and everyone starts from scratch.