Vitalik sets a new challenge for Ethereum: how to achieve "being able to walk away at any time"

Vitalik recently proposed a very interesting requirement for the long-term development of Ethereum: Ethereum itself must pass the “ability to withdraw at any time” test. This is not about technical details but about articulating a fundamental design philosophy—a blockchain protocol cannot rely indefinitely on continuous maintenance and updates to survive.

Why pass the “ability to withdraw at any time” test?

Vitalik’s logic is straightforward: Ethereum’s goal is to become an ideal habitat for various trustless and minimally trusted applications. This means that applications running on it should function like “tools” rather than “services”—once maintainers cease maintenance, the application should not become paralyzed.

But the problem is, if the underlying Ethereum protocol itself depends on ongoing core developer updates to remain usable, then any applications built on top of it are pointless regardless of their design. In other words, you cannot demand certain features from applications while the protocol itself lacks those features. This is why Ethereum must reach a stage where it can “freeze when needed”—the core value proposition of the protocol no longer strictly depends on functionalities that have not yet been implemented.

What are the 7 specific things to achieve?

Vitalik listed the technical goals Ethereum needs to accomplish:

• Fully quantum-resistant
• Scalable to high-performance architectures
• A state architecture that can endure for decades
• Generalized account model
• Reliable gas pricing mechanism resistant to denial-of-service attacks
• An economic model based on long-term experience with proof of stake
• A block construction model that resists centralization pressures and ensures censorship resistance

Not all of these are new topics, but Vitalik emphasizes that each must be done properly, not through temporary compromises. His goal is to complete at least one of these each year, ideally multiple.

What does this imply?

This discourse reflects Vitalik’s deep thinking about Ethereum’s development direction. He is emphasizing not short-term performance improvements or new feature releases but long-term robustness and independence.

In a sense, this sets a “maturity” standard for Ethereum. A truly mature blockchain should not require constant updates and maintenance like a startup to stay competitive but should be relatively stable like infrastructure, capable of self-evolving with the support of the developer community.

It is worth noting that Vitalik is not suggesting halting protocol modifications but ensuring that the core functions and value propositions of the protocol no longer depend on future feature implementations. This is a subtle but important distinction.

What’s next?

From a practical perspective, the timeline for achieving this goal is still long. Some of the seven major requirements Vitalik mentioned are already underway (such as account model upgrades), while others are still in research stages (like quantum resistance). However, this clear goal setting indicates that the Ethereum community’s thinking about long-term development is becoming more systematic.

This also explains why Vitalik has recently been emphasizing “reliability” and “independence” when discussing stablecoins, sovereign networks, and other topics—these are all preparations for Ethereum to pass the “ability to withdraw at any time” test.

Summary

The “ability to withdraw at any time” test proposed by Vitalik essentially defines the qualities a truly decentralized blockchain should possess. It is not a technical issue but a philosophical one—a protocol should be designed to be truly independent of any maintenance efforts, serving as a foundational infrastructure. To reach this state, Ethereum needs to systematically complete seven major technical goals over the coming years, advancing at least one each year. The process will be long, but the goal is clear.