Woofun AI reports that Vitalik Buterin described "Lean Ethereum" as a series of protocol evolutions to be implemented over the next 3 to 4 years. He characterized this phase as potentially the third major evolution following "The Merge".

Proposed core changes include adopting recursive STARK verification, introducing post-quantum cryptography, and decoupling liveness from finality. By 2030, the state layer may feature a 2TB dynamic state and a 100TB scalable state. Privacy becomes a core design goal, while the EVM moves toward higher abstractions and underlying layers transition to RISC-V or leanISA architecture.