Vitalik Buterin released a new proposal suggesting that the consensus layer state be drastically reduced to only 6 bytes.
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Vitalik proposed an "ultra-compact chain" solution: validators submit STARK proofs daily, and state storage is compressed to 6 bytes.
On July 6th, PANews reported that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a proposal titled "The Extremely Lean Chain," demonstrating how to aggressively compress the state requirements of the Ethereum consensus chain within the context of a "Lean" upgrade. This proposal shifts responsibility to validators, who manage and periodically prove their state via ZK, eliminating the per-epoch processing burden and potentially supporting a scale of millions of validators. Core mechanisms include: removing validator public keys from the on-chain state, storing only deposit tree indexes; eliminating real-time reward and penalty processing, with validators generating daily STARKs to prove their participation and update their balances; and completely re-randomizing validator identities daily, achieving strong anonymity through ZK-STARK, with withdrawal addresses only exposed at the time of withdrawal and not publicly associated with deposits or on-chain activity.
Vitalik Buterin outlines Ethereum's long-term roadmap, predicting Lean Ethereum will be the third major iteration.
According to ChainCatcher, Vitalik Buterin recently reported that Ethereum researchers met in Berlin and updated the protocol's long-term roadmap (strawmap.org). Vitalik pointed out that "Lean Ethereum" is not a single upgrade, but a series of improvements to be implemented in phases over the next three to four years. Its importance is comparable to a "merge," encompassing the restructuring of almost every core module of the protocol. Key features include: Verification Mechanism: Introducing recursive STARKs to replace the existing direct re-execution method, becoming a core component of the protocol at the primary level; Quantum Security: Significantly elevated priority, all quantum-fragile components will be replaced, and the quantum-safe Blob design is underway; Consensus Layer: Decoupling the available chain from finality, achieving one to two rounds of finality, resulting in better security and lower latency; State Layer: Existing dynamic states remain unchanged, but new, more scalable states (such as UTXO storage, circular buffers, etc.) will be added. It is projected that by 2030, Ethereum will have 2 TB of dynamic states + 100 TB of new states, and the migration of applications such as ERC20 and NFTs can achieve a gas fee reduction of over 10 times; Privacy: Upgraded from an additional feature to a primary goal, permeating the design of Mempool, state trees, etc.; VM: In addition to the EVM, leanISA or RISC-V will be introduced, with the long-term goal being direct at the protocol layer.
The Bank of Korea has released a regulatory proposal suggesting that personal stablecoin transactions exceeding $10,000 should be limited to transfers from verified wallets.
According to Mars Finance, the legal team of the Bank of Korea has published a research paper titled "Regulatory Scheme for Foreign Remittance Transactions Targeting Stablecoins," proposing regulatory recommendations for large-scale stablecoin transactions. The paper, referencing current South Korean foreign exchange control regulations, proposes constraints on stablecoin transfers exceeding $10,000 between individuals, requiring such transactions to be conducted only between officially certified wallets, along with a pre-reporting mechanism. The institution acknowledges that there are technical obstacles to fully controlling unregistered wallets, but due to anti-money laundering compliance requirements, it is necessary to strengthen restrictions on large-scale cross-border stablecoin fund flows. South Korean regulators have previously repeatedly stated the need to improve the monitoring system for cross-border crypto asset transactions using non-custodial wallets; this paper further refines and implements the regulatory approach.
The U.S. SEC released a statement on its 2026 regulatory agenda: promoting the trading of tokenized securities and advancing the development of crypto rules.
According to Odaily Odaily, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins released a statement regarding the 2026 regulatory agenda, indicating that the SEC will continue to advance a series of regulatory reforms, including adapting the regulatory framework to the current market environment, actively embracing innovation and new technologies, implementing President Trump's goal of "making America the global crypto capital," promoting the launch of more crypto-related products in the U.S. market, establishing clear rules for crypto asset financing, and clarifying the on-chain custody of market participants and promoting on-chain tokenized securities trading. Regarding capital market reforms, the U.S. SEC will advance its "Make IPOs Great Again" initiative, which aims to encourage more companies to enter the public market by reforming information disclosure systems and reducing compliance costs for companies seeking to go public, while maintaining necessary investor protection measures.
EthLabs released its "Week2" update report, highlighting progress on Ethereum interoperability, PropAMMs, and funding.
According to Mars Finance, on July 6th, Barnabé Monnot (barnabé.eth), founder of EthLabs, released a "Week 2" update, summarizing the team's latest progress and ecosystem discussions during the launch and fundraising phases. Regarding interoperability, the team stated they are increasing their confidence in "asynchronous interoperability based on zero-knowledge proofs (zk)," believing this will help build more secure cross-chain bridges and improve the native distribution capabilities of assets across Ethereum's multi-layered network. Currently, some cross-chain paths still suffer from latency issues, especially in the L2→L1 direction; in this context, the intents mechanism can serve as a transitional solution, while sufficient L1 liquidity also helps match cross-chain solvers. Meanwhile, the L1→L2 path is expected to significantly reduce confirmation latency through the Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR), and some clients have already begun integrating this mechanism. In terms of ecosystem discussions, PropAMMs (proposal-based AMMs) have recently become a focus of attention for many teams and researchers, primarily due to their potential optimization space between L1 execution efficiency and transaction building. Meanwhile, ENS is emphasized as a "critical infrastructure for Ethereum," and the team continues to communicate with relevant stakeholders to advance its development direction. Regarding team building, Ethlabs has received over 300 applications and has processed approximately 20%. The short-term goal is to expand to approximately 10 people, and the medium-term goal is to expand to approximately 20 people, focusing on recruiting talent with engineering capabilities and domain expertise. Regarding funding, Ethlabs stated that its current funding round is nearing completion and has secured early support from BitMNR, Sharplink, and Ethereum Joseph. The plan is to bring in 1-2 more core investors before moving to the next stage.
Iranian Parliament Speaker: Reaching a consensus with the United States is possible
PANews reported on July 5 that, according to Saudi media Hadas, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf stated that Iran believes reaching a consensus with the United States is possible despite the difficulties.