Real-Time Ethereum Proving – Explained Simply
Ethereum has been the most hated asset in recent months, as our subscribers know, ETH has become our largest position since our accumulation during tariffs panic. Work within the ethereum ecosystem has been intense and it's great to see moves forward in ZK technology, ethereum will be by far the biggest beneficiary if implemented.
Will ZK tech be the crypto “end game”? Too early to say, but you need to understand Real Time Proving.
real-time proving Q&A :)
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) May 21, 2025
What is it? ELI12.
A: An army of nerds just cracked a sci-fi problem: proving every Ethereum mainnet block in real time. These zk proofs are exponentially cheaper to verify than re-executing transactions—just a few milliseconds, no matter the gas used.…
What is it?
A group of developers solved a big problem: proving every Ethereum mainnet block in real time using zk-proofs. These are way faster and cheaper than replaying transactions—just milliseconds to verify, no matter the gas used.
Why is this a big deal?
Five years ago this seemed impossible. But zk tech improved 10x each year—and here we are. Don’t underestimate exponential growth.
What does this mean for Ethereum?
Ethereum is evolving into a "based, native rollup":
- Based: L1 still orders transactions
- Native: L1 executes them with the EVM
- Rollup: With zk-proofs, L1 becomes a rollup (offchain execution + onchain data)
This enables massive scalability. Base L2 is already doing 35M gas/sec and aiming for 1 gigagas/sec. Ethereum L1 could follow.
When will Ethereum hit gigagas?
With EIP-9698, gas limits may increase ~10x every 2 years. That’s 1,000x in 6 years. If zkVM tech keeps compounding, we could reach gigagas/sec in 3 years.
But aren’t zkVMs buggy?
Yes, which is why diversity is key. Like Ethereum's clients, having multiple zkVMs adds security. Formal verification will come later.
Can zk-proving scale that high?
Yes. Proving is highly parallel. With smart chunking (EIP-7825), the system stays fast even as throughput rises.
What’s the next hurdle?
Power. To keep proving at home viable, clusters should run under ~10kW. We’ll get there through:
- Smarter software
- Better hardware (ASICs, Moore’s Law)
- Distributed proving
This new upgrade is very interesting and important for crypto technology as a whole, we will keep an eye on future developments and let you know.
By Wolfy Wealth - Crypto Insights
Wolfy Wealth
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