Shipping an L1 zkEVM #1: Realtime Proving
The Road to Realtime Proving: Unlocking the Potential of L1 zkEVM
As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to evolve, the focus on ZK (Zero-Knowledge) proofs is becoming increasingly prominent. The Ethereum Foundation's vision for a future where ZK proofs are used at all levels of the stack, from consensus layer signature aggregation to on-chain privacy with client-side proving, is an exciting one. However, the first step towards achieving this vision is the development of an L1 zkEVM, which requires a concerted effort from the community.
The Fastest and Safest Way to Ship an L1 zkEVM
To ship an L1 zkEVM in less than a year, the fastest and safest approach is to give validators the option to run clients that statelessly verify multiple proofs generated by different zkVMs, each proving different EVM implementations. This approach leverages the speed and succinctness of proof verification, making it reasonable to download and verify multiple proofs. By applying the same defense-in-depth as existing client diversity to zkVMs, this plan can provide a robust and secure solution.
Initial Verification Off-Chain
To implement this plan, all that is required from the protocol is some form of pipelining in Glamsterdam to allow for more proving time. Initially, few validators are expected to run ZK clients, but as their security is demonstrated in production, adoption is expected to increase. The Ethereum Foundation is also putting resources into formal verification, specification writing, audits, and bug bounties to support the development of secure and reliable zkVMs.
Defining Realtime Proving for the L1
To maintain the security, liveness, and censorship-resistance properties of the L1, the Ethereum Foundation is proposing a standardized definition of realtime proving for zkVM teams to work towards. This definition aims to harness the entire zkVM industry towards making Ethereum the largest ZK application in the world.
Key Requirements for Realtime Proving
To achieve realtime proving, zkVMs targeting this goal should aim for the following requirements:
- Latency: < 10s for P99 of mainnet blocks
- On-prem CAPEX: < 100k USD
- On-prem power: < 10kW
- Code: Fully open source
- Security: >= 128 bits
- Proof size: < 300KiB with no trusted setups
The Importance of Home Proving
Home proving is an essential aspect of maintaining the highest levels of liveness and censorship resistance. The idea is that solo stakers who currently run validators from home will opt-in to proving, providing an additional layer of security and protection against potential attacks.
The Focus on On-Prem Proving
Since proving in the cloud is already quite cheap with multi-GPU spot instances, the focus for zkVM teams targeting realtime proving will largely be optimizing for running provers on-prem where the specs are much more constrained. On-prem realtime proving should require a maximum capital expenditure of 100k USD, and the most significant constraint for home proving using GPUs is energy usage.
The Road Ahead
Between now and Devconnect Argentina, we hope to see zkVM teams continue innovating towards realtime home proving, and for the leading zkVMs to become future core infrastructure for Ethereum. The requirements for achieving realtime proving are clear, and the community is working towards a common goal. With the Ethereum Foundation's support and the community's dedication, we can unlock the potential of L1 zkEVM and create a more secure, efficient, and scalable blockchain ecosystem.
Source: https://blog.ethereum.org/en/2025/07/10/realtime-proving
