Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said blockchains are evolving from standalone ledgers into broader cryptographic networks that include Layer 1, Layer 2, the mempool, off-chain computation and systems where multiple participants produce blocks together. Speaking at a blockchain summit in Shanghai, Buterin said advances in data analytics and artificial intelligence are exposing the privacy limitations of early public blockchains. He identified SNARKs, STARKs, fully homomorphic encryption and formal verification as increasingly important for privacy, scalability and security. Buterin also said zero-knowledge technology is moving from a long-term roadmap into concrete Ethereum Improvement Proposals, while AI is speeding the development and verification of complex cryptographic systems. The event’s historical framing contrasts today’s ecosystem with Shanghai’s first global blockchain summit 12 years earlier, when Bitcoin remained a technical experiment on geek mailing lists, Ethereum’s white paper had not yet been written, and blockchain was unfamiliar to most people.