Why Does Ethereum Urgently Need ZK-ification?

One of the most frequently asked questions recently is, how should we view Ethereum's narrative?

Indeed, in 2017, Ethereum's main focus was ICOs and the world computer; in 2021, it was DeFi and the financial settlement layer. However, for the 2025 cycle, there seems to be a lack of new narratives that can match the stature of the previous major ones.

Perhaps the ETF and Staking ETF could be considered half a narrative, but this is not within the control of Ethereum developers. If we were to name the other half, it could only be ZK.

There is no doubt that Ethereum is the public chain that has placed the biggest bet on ZK in the entire Crypto world.

A few days ago, Vitalik was quite excited, announcing on Twitter that ZKEVM has now entered the Alpha stage.

Why is Ethereum so fixated on ZK?

Actually, Ethereum's TPS is not low anymore; the theoretical peak has been raised to over 200 TPS. The main reason is that Ethereum has increased its Gas limit multiple times.

However, increasing the Gas limit comes at a cost and cannot be done indefinitely. The cost is that nodes require more expensive servers to run.

But Ethereum also wants to preserve its highly decentralized nature, which it prides itself on, so it cannot push the server performance requirements for nodes too high (for reference, a single Solana server is roughly 5–10 times more expensive than a single ETH server).

Therefore, the mainnet must be ZK-ified. Note, this is not just about having a few ZK L2s; this is about the complete ZK-ification of the L1 mainnet.

So, what are the benefits after ZK-ification?

Those ETH nodes can simply verify these ZK proofs, without needing to tediously verify transactions one by one as in the past.

To use an analogy, if you are a grading teacher (node), the transactions are the students' exam papers.

Manually grading papers in the past was certainly slow. But since the advent of the miraculous tool of answer sheets (ZK-ification), the machine calculates the students' total scores in a second. As a teacher, wouldn't that make your job much easier?

You are more relaxed. In the past, one person could only grade 50 papers; now they can grade 1000. The person is the same, but efficiency skyrockets.

Therefore, Ethereum must first ZK-ify its mainnet, and only then can it continue to significantly increase the Gas limit.

ZK-ification itself does not directly increase TPS; it is a prerequisite. Improving performance still relies on raising the Gas limit, but after ZK-ification, nodes do not need to increase their server costs much, making the cost very small.

After the successful Fusaka upgrade (especially the PeerDAS upgrade), Ethereum has taken another step closer to mainnet ZK-ification, which is why Vitalik is so excited.

Imagine a mainnet with TPS breaking a thousand; for Ethereum, that could indeed be considered a decent narrative.

If Ethereum itself builds a ZK-EVM for the mainnet, are other ZK teams still relevant?

Let's state the conclusion first: yes, they are still relevant.

Why?

First, ZK engineering is one of the most difficult developments in the entire network, sitting at the same table as FHE. It requires a large number of cryptography talents.

It is believed that the Ethereum Foundation has some reserves in this area, but as an open-source community, Ethereum adheres to the philosophy that "many hands make light work." It relies on a large number of third-party ZK teams for trial, error, and innovation. In return, Ethereum provides substantial support.

Second, there are four types of ZK-EVM, from type 1 to type 4. Several teams, including Polygon, Scroll, ZKsync, and Taiko, are somewhat like each claiming a task, working separately to implement one of these types.

Furthermore, there is ZK-VM, such as Brevis.

In fact, ZK-VM's position is even more stable compared to ZK-EVM.

The reason is that among the four major ZK-EVM types mentioned above, it is highly likely that one with the best cost-performance ratio will eventually be chosen to become part of the designated solution for Ethereum's mainnet ZK-EVM. This could affect the other three.

However, for ZK-VM, it is not EVM-compatible by nature, so it will certainly exist as part of Ethereum's diversity.

Moreover, because VM is not constrained by EVM limitations, its performance can run very high. Ethereum's ZK-EVM poses no threat to it; on the contrary, Ethereum officials will continue to encourage it.

For example, Vitalik previously specifically mentioned the performance of Brevis's ZK-VM and expressed anticipation for them to enter the ZK-EVM field.

What about for L2s?

There might be some impact, but it's still not significant.

When discussing Polygon, Vitalik once said that ZK and L2 should be kept separate.

A ZK-ified L1 will certainly attract back some users from ZK L2s. After all, if L1 is cheap enough, the number of users going to L2 might decrease.

But think about it the other way: if L1 is the foundation and L2 is the skyscraper, the foundation must be as solid as possible. So, if the L1 mainnet is ZK-ified, L2 fees will also decrease, which is beneficial.

Furthermore, in that tweet, Vitalik specifically mentioned Brevis, which is working on ZK-VM. The reason is that much of the ZK work Brevis does is not limited to L2, meaning "ZK research and L2 research are separate."

For example, they have a ZK computing power market, helping with ZK-ified reward distribution for Uniswap's hooks, which is application-driven.

In summary, Ethereum has been live for 10 years now, and the slogan of ZK-ification has been around for five or six years. After continuous cultivation, ZK-ification has finally entered the Alpha stage. This achievement is inseparable from the ongoing investment by Ethereum and numerous third-party ZK teams, including Brevis and Polygon.