Ethereum's 2026 Expansion Through Zero-Knowledge Proofs Expected to Transform Blockchain Operations

According to BlockBeats, researchers and developers anticipate that 2026 will be a pivotal year for Ethereum as it leverages zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) to achieve exponential scaling. During this period, some Ethereum validators will transition from re-executing transactions to directly verifying ZK proofs, fundamentally altering blockchain operations. This shift is expected to be comparable in scale to Ethereum's 2022 transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), known as 'The Merge.' Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has indicated that the initial validators will begin verifying ZK proofs for each block instead of re-executing all transactions. This approach will provide immediate scaling benefits for Layer 1 and lay the groundwork for achieving 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) in the future. Currently, the Ethereum mainnet processes approximately 30 TPS. During Devconnect, Drake demonstrated that ZK proof verification could be performed using an old laptop, predicting that by the end of 2026, around 10% of validators will switch to the ZK verification mode, known as Lean Execution Phase 1. This transition is expected to significantly reduce hardware requirements for validation nodes while maintaining network decentralization. Ethereum Besu client engineer Gary Schulte highlighted that future computationally intensive tasks will primarily be handled by block builders and ZK provers, allowing ordinary validators to perform lightweight checks. This development creates conditions for increasing the gas limit and overall throughput. Ethereum's roadmap currently remains in Phase 0, which involves voluntary validation. It is projected to enter Phase 1 in 2026, where some validators will switch to ZK verification, and progress to Phase 2 in 2027, mandating block producers to generate ZK proofs for comprehensive ZK execution.