Three major deterministic trends from Berlinterop: Ethereum upgrades and a new chapter in the Layer 2 ecosystem

In June this year, Ethereum core developers gathered offline in Berlin with technical teams from Layer 2 and ZK scenarios for a five-day in-depth collaboration. This meeting, referred to as Berlinterop, was not only an engineering advancement gathering but also showcased three clear technical mainlines for Ethereum heading into 2025: accelerated upgrades to the execution layer, reconstruction of inter-chain collaboration mechanisms, and standardization transformation of zero-knowledge pathways.

This is Berlinterop - an offline research and development gathering that continues the tradition of "interop hacking week" but is more deeply anchored in the technological main line of the next phase of Ethereum.

Main Line 1: Fusaka Upgrade, Opening a New Cycle of Execution Layer Performance

A major technical focus of this Berlinterop is the Fusaka upgrade. Developers have launched two testnets (fusaka-devnet-1 and berlinterop-devnet-2) and conducted in-depth testing around execution performance improvements, block construction logic optimization, and parallel path experiments.

Fusaka, as an important upgrade to the Ethereum execution layer, aims not only to enhance throughput but also potentially pave the way for future Pectra upgrades (such as parallel EVM, short Slot proposals, etc.).

This development week also clarified the rhythm for the coming weeks: Fusaka-devnet-2 is expected to be released after community discussions, and after testing is completed, it will be deployed to the Sepolia testnet in late summer and enter the mainnet upgrade preparation stage.

This is Ethereum's most direct response to "performance" in recent years and is seen as a key signal towards the openness to modular and high-performance L2 protocols.

Main Line 2: Reconstruction of L2 and Mainnet Collaboration Mechanism, Accelerating Interoperability Standardization

Berlinterop has specially set up a dedicated L2 collaboration day, inviting representatives from teams such as Arbitrum, Base, OP Labs, Polygon, Scroll, Starkware, World Chain, and ZKsync to discuss the current situation and bottlenecks of L1 and L2 collaboration.

Consensus is being formed: Layer 2 is no longer just users of Ethereum, but also co-builders of protocols and experimental grounds for expansion paths.

During the meeting, the L2 team raised three main demands:

As a mainnet user, I hope to gain more data availability resources (such as blobs) and faster final confirmation speeds.

As a stakeholder of the protocol, I hope to be considered in the changes to the EVM and to prepare in advance;

As an operator of a high-throughput execution layer, I hope to participate in the standard formulation for the mainnet expansion path based on past experience.

This marks a turning point, Layer 2 is no longer just an "accelerator" for Ethereum; it is becoming part of the mainnet operating mechanism.

We can foresee that future EIP proposals, Gas models, etc. will see more in-depth participation and design collaboration from L2, laying a standardized foundation for the future of "multi-chain collaboration + cross-chain abstraction."

Main Line 3: Accelerating Towards a Modular Execution World

Another key scene of Berlinterop is the zk special session. Researchers from dozens of projects such as Scroll, Succinct, Starkware, ZKsync, ZKM, and RISC Zero engaged in candid and in-depth discussions around zkEVM, Stateless Client, and ISA standardization.

Among them, the Stateless Client route is particularly noteworthy — a lightweight client that does not rely on local state and verifies the validity of blocks through zk proofs is becoming a core candidate for the next generation of Ethereum node forms.

They plan to deliver a prototype implementation by the end of 2025 and address:

Proof of Incentive Mechanism (Who generates it? Who verifies it?)

Design of censorship-resistant data sources

Standardization of zk VM Instruction Set and Compilation Path

These changes will fundamentally alter the definition of "node" in Ethereum: lightweight, verifiable, and modular execution will gradually become the default form. This represents: we are one step closer to the future of "compressing Ethereum into a browser plugin."

The main storyline of Ethereum has emerged.

Faster Execution Layer → Fusaka Fires the First Shot

Stronger collaboration mechanism → L2 officially comes to the forefront

Lighter clients → zk and modular execution are being implemented.

All of this constitutes the triple upgrade challenges and opportunities that Ethereum will face in 2025.

Written at last

Berlinterop sends a clear signal to the entire ecosystem:

The technical iteration pace of Ethereum is accelerating, and the collaborative relationship between Layer 2 and the mainnet has also entered deep waters. Execution performance, interoperability, and zk modularization constitute the three most certain main lines for 2025.

For Layer 2 built on Superchain and dedicated to creating the next generation of on-chain NFTs and Agent infrastructure, Mint pays close attention to and understands future key technology trends. We firmly believe that only by continuously promoting underlying protocol upgrades and ecological collaboration can we provide users with a more efficient, safer, and more innovative blockchain experience.

Mint is already on the way.