Bitcoin and Ethereum have recently seen new developments. Starting from December 25th, the next year will be a critical window for Ethereum scalability upgrades.

Some developers believe that an important fork upgrade may occur in 2026. According to plans, the Gas limit is expected to surpass the 200 million mark, representing a huge leap for network throughput. An increasing number of validators are turning to zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology, pushing Layer 1 towards the goal of processing ten thousand transactions per second — although this target may be difficult to achieve in the short term.

On the Layer 2 side, the situation is even more promising. After data block expansion, certain Layer 2 solutions might handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. The ZKsync Atlas upgrade allows funds to remain on the mainnet, enabling fast transaction settlement within a resilient network. Furthermore, cross-chain interoperability layers are also in development, potentially enabling truly seamless transfers between L2 solutions in the future. Privacy protection is also included in the upgrade plans, with anti-censorship capabilities expected to be enhanced. But whether these ambitious blueprints can be realized on schedule remains uncertain.

Recently, a hot topic has been the threat of quantum computing to cryptocurrencies. Many people are discussing this, but AI organizations and crypto research teams hold different views. They point out that by 2026, the practical application of quantum computing in the commercial field will still be extremely limited. According to these experts’ estimates, at least 90% of the so-called "quantum threat" in the market is marketing hype.

But can the risk really be ignored? There are indeed some areas worth paying attention to. The public key cryptography relied upon by the Bitcoin network, especially the ECDSA algorithm, theoretically has vulnerabilities. Data shows that about 25% to 30% of Bitcoin are stored at addresses where the public key has already been exposed, which does pose potential risks from a technical perspective. Security teams have even proposed an "collect first, decrypt later" attack hypothesis — collecting encrypted data today to be cracked with quantum computers in the future.

The community isn’t idle either. Some development teams are planning to upgrade cryptographic frameworks to provide quantum-level protection for hot wallets. Practical advice from experts includes: avoid repeatedly using the same address, and when quantum-resistant wallets become truly available, migrate your funds promptly. Whether this is proactive planning or over-worrying, opinions vary.

Back to the main question: Do you think Ethereum can truly break through its scalability bottleneck in 2026? Is the quantum threat a serious real risk that needs to be taken seriously, or is it overhyped? Feel free to share your thoughts.