In a speech in Shanghai, Vitalik Buterin stated that blockchain is evolving from a standalone ledger into a broader crypto network encompassing L1, L2, mempools, off-chain computation, and multi-party block building. He noted that as powerful data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) render early public chain privacy models insufficient, technologies such as SNARKs, STARKs, fully homomorphic encryption, and formal verification are becoming crucial for privacy, scalability, and security. Buterin added that zero-knowledge technologies are transitioning from long-term roadmaps to concrete Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), while AI is accelerating the development and verification of complex cryptographic systems. This shift marks the advent of a new era of "programmable cryptography," where blockchain systems will be able to move beyond defining "who can send what" to also defining "who can see what."