Vitalik Buterin envisions 2026 as the year Ethereum addresses its convenience-first compromises. While the protocol remained trustless, defaults shifted, with wallets relying on centralized RPCs and decentralized applications becoming server-dependent. To counter this, Ethereum plans infrastructure fixes to prioritize trust-minimization. These include verified RPC clients for verifiable endpoints and private information retrieval to conceal user queries. Kohaku, the Ethereum Foundation's wallet initiative, will integrate these protocol improvements into default user behavior. Helios, a light client by a16z crypto, enables verifiably safe local RPC by converting data from untrusted RPCs, reducing trust by verifying cryptographic proofs locally. The goal is to make RPC decentralization a standard user experience.

Vitalik Buterin envisions 2026 as the year Ethereum addresses its convenience-first compromises. While the protocol remained trustless, defaults shifted, with wallets relying on centralized RPCs and decentralized applications becoming server-dependent. To counter this, Ethereum plans infrastructure fixes to prioritize trust-minimization. These include verified RPC clients for verifiable endpoints and private information retrieval to conceal user queries. Kohaku, the Ethereum Foundation's wallet initiative, will integrate these protocol improvements into default user behavior. Helios, a light client by a16z crypto, enables verifiably safe local RPC by converting data from untrusted RPCs, reducing trust by verifying cryptographic proofs locally. The goal is to make RPC decentralization a standard user experience.