Crypto glossary
Ethereum roadmap (Surge, Verge, Purge)
The Ethereum roadmap is the long-term upgrade plan, grouped into the Merge, Surge, Scourge, Verge, Purge and Splurge, that guides how the network evolves.
The roadmap is a set of research directions popularised by Vitalik Buterin's diagrams rather than a fixed schedule. The Merge moved Ethereum to proof of stake in 2022. The Surge aims at massive scaling through rollups and more data space. The Scourge tackles MEV and censorship risks. The Verge works toward stateless clients that verify blocks without storing all state. The Purge trims old history and complexity, and the Splurge collects everything else, from account abstraction to EVM improvements.
These labels shape how the market reads each upgrade: blobs and PeerDAS belong to the Surge, history expiry to the Purge, proposals to enshrine block building to the Scourge. Since 2025 core developers have also framed priorities around scaling the base layer, scaling blobs and improving user experience, which pushed gas limit increases up the agenda.
The tracks run in parallel and overlap, and their contents change as research moves; technologies once central, such as Verkle trees for the Verge, can be reconsidered. No item has a guaranteed date until it is scheduled into a named hard fork.
Example
When developers announced that the next hard fork would raise blob capacity again, commentators placed the change under the Surge, the scaling branch of the Ethereum roadmap.