As we all know, Ethereum was born from PoW (Proof of Work) and successfully transitioned to PoS (Proof of Stake) in 2021. In this regard, Justin Drake, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, believes that although the Beacon Chain was very effective when PoS was first introduced, it has accumulated some "technical debt" over the past five years, and its design has not leveraged cutting-edge technologies in decentralized systems (such as zero-knowledge proofs). Therefore, the consensus layer of Ethereum urgently needs a major overhaul.
In a recent speech at Devcon in Bangkok, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake announced a proposal to fundamentally reform Ethereum's consensus layer, called "Beam Chain."
This is part of Ethereum's long-term roadmap, allowing Ethereum to utilize the breakthroughs in current ZK cryptography, aiming to significantly improve network scalability and performance without the need to launch a new network. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most important upgrades for Ethereum in the next 3–5 years.
Beam Chain is not a new blockchain in the literal sense, but a new infrastructure built within the Ethereum mainnet that will significantly enhance the transaction speed, security, and efficiency of the L1 mainnet. Some interpret Beam Chain as Ethereum 3.0, which is a misunderstanding because Beam Chain only addresses the consensus layer issues and does not change the data layer (such as blob channels) or the execution layer (such as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)).
The five core transformations of Beam Chain are:
Faster block confirmation: Enabling 4-second slot times and single-slot finality.
No compromise on decentralization: Maintaining or improving current decentralization guarantees.
Lowering the staking threshold: Reducing ETH staking from 32 ETH to just 1 ETH.
Protecting ordinary users: Eliminating MEV based on block reorganization.
Future-proofing: Equipping the Ethereum network with quantum resistance.
Upgrade Ideas and Principles of Beam Chain
1. Increased Block Production
Higher throughput: Beam Chain will increase block production to three times the current rate to enhance Ethereum's transaction capacity.
Anti-censorship: The introduction of FOCIL (Fork Choice Mandatory Inclusion List) enhances censorship resistance, ensuring that transactions are not easily excluded by malicious actors.
Execution auctions & isolated validators: Validators will use execution auctions for isolation, ensuring stronger performance and decentralization, while also allowing more users to be free from MEV interference.
Faster finality: Ethereum will feature single-slot finality and 4-second block times, allowing for quicker transaction confirmations and improved network efficiency.
Interestingly, exchanges will no longer need to wait for 1/32, 2/32, 3/32… for slow block confirmations, as a single block will suffice for confirmation in the future.
2. Improved Staking
Improved issuance model: Changes to the reward issuance model for validators will yield greater returns for staking.
Lower staking requirements: Independent validators will only need to stake 1 ETH, far below the current 32 ETH threshold, making independent staking simpler and more widespread.
We believe that for Ethereum to accommodate more nodes in consensus while speeding up, without significantly changing hardware requirements, and to break the staking trilemma, it is truly thanks to ZK technology, which is indeed leading the industry.
3. Enhanced Security
Post-quantum cryptography: Ethereum will implement quantum-resistant cryptography to ensure the network is protected from quantum computing threats, taking the first step towards mainstream blockchain quantum resistance.
Integration of zkSNARK and zkVM: Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) will be integrated with Ethereum through zkSNARK and zkVM to further enhance privacy, scalability, and security.
SNARKification of the blockchain: Ethereum will utilize RISC-V to SNARKify the blockchain, a process that can improve the efficiency and scalability of proof generation. SNARK is a compact form of zero-knowledge proof that allows one party to prove possession of information without revealing the information or requiring any interaction between the prover and verifier.
In short, we can summarize this as: making the entire Ethereum directly ZK-enabled.
Enhanced randomness: Ethereum will also introduce strong randomness to ensure fairness in key network processes such as validator selection.
Reducing MEV risks: Better censorship resistance can minimize the proliferation of bots like sandwich attacks.
4. How It Works
Since the design of Ethereum's current consensus layer (the Beacon Chain) was established, cryptographers have made significant progress in SNARKs. By SNARKifying Ethereum's state transition function (i.e., the messages of state changes integrated for validators to maintain a correct view of the blockchain), 4-second slot times and single-slot finality can be achieved.
On one hand, the reduction in block production and finality times can positively impact the waiting time for Ethereum L1 transaction experiences;
On the other hand, it can also eliminate potential value extraction from transactions through remote block reorganization strategies and reduce technical debt in the consensus layer.
Additionally, SNARKification will give the Ethereum network quantum resistance, which is an essential feature for future blockchains.
Beam Chain will advance Ethereum's upgrade in the following ways:
Using sharding to accelerate processing speed: Ethereum Beam Chain will employ sharding technology to divide data into smaller parts (shards) to process multiple transactions simultaneously. This will reduce transaction bottlenecks and speed up transaction times.
Quantum-computing-resistant security: Ethereum will leverage cutting-edge cryptographic technology to ensure that even future super quantum computers cannot compromise the network's security.
Integration with Ethereum's roadmap: Beam Chain is not an independent network but an integrated phase of Ethereum's roadmap for expansion and enhanced security over the next five years.
5. Significant Implications
Beam Chain is crucial for Ethereum's ability to handle the growing number of decentralized applications — it can enhance Ethereum's scalability, reduce transaction costs, and improve overall security, enabling the network to support more users and complex applications over time.
Another major benefit of SNARK-based proofs is that they allow ordinary stakers equipped with standard hardware to achieve the aforementioned performance advantages. As the staking threshold is reduced from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, the decentralization of the Ethereum staker community will also improve with enhanced network performance.
Especially with the lowered threshold, if combined with some related hardware devices, such as Ebunker’s eNode, allowing home-level validator devices to reach households, Ethereum will still have the most nodes and be the most decentralized public chain worldwide.
Although the vision of Beam Chain will not cause immediate changes to Ethereum or significantly alter its long-term roadmap, its adoption will change the priority of roadmap development, accelerating the development of specific components (for example, the current roadmap sets some important upgrades for 2029, while Beam Chain may hasten the arrival of significant upgrades).
If Beam Chain receives sufficient community support, developers can begin drafting specifications next year, followed by the development of production-level code by the developer client team in 2026, testing in 2027, and finally safely deploying it on the Ethereum mainnet. Although the implementation of Beam Chain seems a bit distant, these safety redundancies are extremely necessary for decentralized open-source software.
In summary, Beam Chain addresses past "technical debt" through a ZK-enabled approach, and these improvements are expected to significantly enhance its L1 capabilities while retaining Ethereum's "world-class decentralization."
At the same time, long-term solutions such as quantum resistance introduced by new ideas will place Ethereum's consensus layer in "maintenance mode," ensuring that Ethereum remains secure, efficient, and adaptable for decades to come, enabling future innovations without disruptive redesigns.
Ethereum continues to diligently plan for the long term, which is an exciting update for the blockchain and the entire industry, allowing us to maintain an optimistic foundation for Ethereum amidst the current booming market conditions.
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