Ethereum's Layer 1 (L1) – that's the base blockchain where everything starts – is gearing up for some serious upgrades. Ansgar Dietrichs, a key researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, recently shared his personal goal of boosting L1 execution throughput by 3x every year. This isn't just tech talk; it could mean faster, cheaper transactions that make meme tokens even more accessible and fun for everyone in the crypto space.

In a tweet that's part of a larger conversation sparked by Ryan Sean Adams and even Vitalik Buterin himself, Ansgar laid out a roadmap that's both ambitious and grounded. He mentioned starting mid-year, so the timeline doesn't perfectly match calendar years, but he's eyeing plausible paths for increases from 2025-26, 26-27, and 27-28. After that, he hopes to bring in zkEVM – zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, a tech that allows for secure, efficient transaction proofs without revealing all the details.

This slide from Ansgar's presentation highlights a quote from Justin Drake, another Ethereum researcher, dreaming big about achieving 1 gigagas per second (that's a massive amount of computational power) on L1 without compromising on decentralization or security. Features like consumer hardware support, home internet compatibility, censorship resistance (FOCIL), 100% uptime through client diversity, and 8K consensus nodes are key to this vision.

But why does this matter for meme tokens? Meme coins thrive on high-volume, low-cost trades. Right now, many memes live on L2 solutions like Base or Optimism to avoid high gas fees on L1. Scaling L1 directly could bring more activity back to the base layer, reducing reliance on rollups and making it easier for new projects to launch without the overhead. Imagine deploying your next dog-themed token without breaking the bank on fees – that's the kind of accessibility that could explode the meme ecosystem.

Here, Ansgar breaks down the scaling rate: 10x in 2 years, 100x in 4, and a whopping 1000x in 6 years, all boiling down to that 3x annual target. It's compound growth that could transform Ethereum from a solid but sometimes sluggish network into a powerhouse.

Looking at progress so far, Ansgar noted in his slides that they've already made strides. Simple improvements bumped gas limits to 45M in July, harder ones to 60M now, and small changes in the upcoming Fusaka upgrade could push it to 80-120M early 2026. That's on track for the first 3x within 12 months!

This ties into broader Ethereum developments. Vitalik recently talked about EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) for 2026 that enable safer scaling while keeping things decentralized. Features like PBS (Proposer-Builder Separation) and block-level access lists are set to allow a gas cap increase, making the network more powerful. Ryan Adams highlighted a slide from another talk suggesting 200M to 300M gas in 2026 – very bullish for throughput.

For the future, Ansgar sees the Glamsterdam upgrade delivering a realistic second 3x, followed by H-Star and I-Star for a plausible third. Beyond that, zkEVM becomes essential to keep pushing boundaries without sacrificing Ethereum's core principles.

If you're into meme tokens, this is exciting news. Better L1 performance means more on-chain activity, potentially leading to wilder pumps, more community-driven projects, and easier participation for retail investors. Of course, it's not guaranteed – Ansgar himself calls it plausible, not promised. But with the Ethereum Foundation's track record, it's worth keeping an eye on.

Stay tuned to Meme Insider for more updates on how blockchain tech evolves and impacts your favorite memes. What do you think – will this scaling unlock the next meme supercycle?