#ETH Ethereum has completed another important technological advancement. Will it achieve a leap in 2026?

The zkEVM ecosystem has achieved a leap in performance after a year of hard work, with the proof time for $Ethereum ETH blocks dropping sharply from 16 minutes to 16 seconds, and costs reduced by 45 times. The participating zkVMs can now complete 99% of mainnet block proofs within 10 seconds on target hardware.

On December 18, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced the implementation of the real-time proof mechanism and the removal of performance bottlenecks, but emphasized that the real challenge lies in reliability. A lack of security support for speed will become a burden, and several mathematical conjectures relied upon by zkEVM based on the STARK algorithm have been disproven in recent months, leading to a decrease in security levels.

EF previously set a comprehensive real-time proof target in July, covering multiple dimensions such as latency, hardware, and security, and has now met the standards through EthProofs benchmarking.

The core transformation lies in shifting from pursuing throughput to provable security, clarifying that the L1-level zkEVM must meet the 128-bit security standard, aligning with mainstream cryptographic norms, as the falsification of proofs could lead to fatal risks such as token forgery and L1 state tampering, and the security margin is non-negotiable.

EF synchronously announces the three-phase security roadmap:

By the end of February 2026, all zkEVM teams must integrate the proof system into the EF's soundcalc security assessment tool to standardize the security measurement criteria.
Achieve Glamsterdam standards by the end of May, reaching the transitional goal of 100 verifiable security equivalencies;

Complete the final goal of H-star by the end of December, achieving 128-bit provable security, and providing a formal security proof in the form of a recursive topological structure.

To achieve the goal, EF mentions core technological tools such as WHIR and JaggedPCS, which can enhance efficiency by optimizing proof generation and avoiding wasted computational power, while also reducing proof size through techniques like recursive topology.

However, there are still multiple challenges at present. Real-time proof has not yet been implemented on-chain, and the actual operational effectiveness of validators is in doubt; security parameters need to be dynamically adjusted as mathematical conjectures are disproven; it is unknown whether some teams can meet the deadlines; the formal verification projects of recursive architecture are still in the early stages, and ecological development is uneven.

It is worth noting that the zkEVM, once it meets the standards, can support Ethereum in increasing the Gas limit, enhancing block capacity while ensuring the feasibility of staking, promoting L1 to become a trusted settlement layer, and blurring the boundaries between L2 and L1 execution.

The performance sprint has now ended, and the core proposition of the zkEVM ecosystem has shifted to achieving sufficiently reliable security proofs without relying on ephemeral conjectures, to support asset scales in the hundreds of billions. The current security competition has officially begun, and this will become the main theme of Ethereum in 2026.