A fundamental bottleneck in Ethereum's scalability is that every validator must re-execute every transaction. Simply increasing the block gas limit would raise hardware requirements for everyone, risking centralization. To scale safely, we need a new approach.
Currently, all validators execute all transactions to verify a block's validity. This redundant computation is secure but creates a ceiling for network throughput. It's the primary reason gas fees can become prohibitively high during peak demand.
zkEVMs shift this paradigm. Instead of all validators re-executing, a single specialized actor (a prover) executes the block and generates a short, cryptographic proof of its correctness. Verifying this proof is orders of magnitude cheaper than full re-execution, allowing Ethereum to safely raise the gas limit.
Often called a "Type 1" zkEVM, this ensures zero friction for existing applications, developers, and tooling—no modifications required.
By safely increasing the block gas limit, zkEVMs expand network capacity, reducing congestion and making gas fees more stable and affordable.
Validators only perform lightweight proof verification, lowering hardware requirements. This keeps the barrier to entry low, protecting the diversity of the validator set.
Proof verification is fast and constant-time, regardless of block complexity. This reduces the risk of missed attestations, making block confirmations more reliable.
Bringing zkEVMs to L1 is a multi-faceted effort. Our work is organized into three core workstreams, with parallel progress on client implementations.
The core challenge is generating a proof for a full Ethereum block within the 12-second slot time. Our work focuses on prover performance, parallelization, and hardware acceleration to meet this latency target.
We are designing how zkEVMs will integrate into Ethereum's execution and consensus layers. This involves standardizing interfaces and defining the protocol changes for clients to request and verify proofs.
A robust protocol requires sound incentives. We are researching models for prover markets, censorship resistance, and aligning builder and prover incentives to ensure network liveness and security.
Evaluating core zkEVM implementations based on criteria required for a secure and sustainable mainnet deployment.
General readiness status of Ethereum clients for ZKVM integration. Individual zkVM-specific client readiness is shown in the zkVM Tracker.
Progress is measured against specific milestones for each client type
For a complete technical overview, our book provides a top-down exploration of zkEVMs. It covers everything from the high-level architecture to the deep cryptographic principles of ZK-VM internals.
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