Ethereum Foundation Details zkEVM Advances And Roadmap For 2026 

In Brief

Ethereum Foundation has reported zkEVM performance improvements over the past year and is now prioritizing security and formal verification, setting milestones to achieve provable 128-bit security by the end of 2026.

Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum’s long-term development through research, technology, and community initiatives, has published an update on the progress of its zkEVM ecosystem, summarizing a year of advancements and outlining future goals.

According to the report, latency for real-time proving has decreased dramatically from 16 minutes to 16 seconds, costs have dropped 45-fold, and zkVMs now verify 99% of Ethereum blocks in under 10 seconds on target hardware. While these performance improvements address major bottlenecks, security remains a primary concern

Many STARK-based zkEVMs still rely on unproven mathematical assumptions, and recent research has challenged some of these conjectures, reducing the effective security margin. The Ethereum Foundation emphasizes that provable security remains essential, targeting 128-bit security as recommended by standardization bodies and validated by computational benchmarks, particularly given the potential for attackers to exploit soundness flaws in Layer 1 zkEVMs, which could compromise large amounts of funds.

Balancing security and proof size is critical, as higher security typically increases proof sizes, which must remain manageable for propagation across Ethereum’s network. To address this, the Foundation has set three key milestones

Ethereum Foundation highlights that by the end of February 2026, zkEVM teams are expected to integrate SoundCalc, a tool for consistently estimating security based on current cryptographic bounds and proof parameters. By the end of May 2026, the ecosystem aims to achieve 100-bit provable security with final proof sizes under 600 KiB and a compact description of the recursion architecture. By the end of 2026, the target is 128-bit provable security, proof sizes under 300 KiB, and a formal security argument for the recursive architecture

Recent cryptographic and engineering developments, including compact polynomial commitments, advanced recursion techniques, and structured circuit composition, make these milestones feasible. Documenting the architecture and soundness of recursion is particularly important, as modern zkEVMs involve complex, team-specific recursive circuit designs that are essential for the security of the overall system.

Ethereum Foundation Shifts Focus To zkEVM Security And Formal Verification Ahead Of H-Star Milestone

There is a strategic reason to focus on zkEVM security at this stage. Securing a system that is still evolving is challenging, but once zkVM architectures stabilize and teams reach key targets, formal verification efforts can be fully realized. By the H-star milestone, the proof system layer is expected to be largely settled—not permanently fixed, but stable enough to enable formal verification of critical components, finalize security proofs, and align specifications with deployed code. This stability is essential for achieving secure Layer 1 zkEVMs.

A year ago, the primary question was whether zkEVMs could prove transactions quickly enough, and that challenge has now been addressed. The current focus is on whether they can do so reliably and securely, and confidence is high that they can. The Ethereum Foundation plans to publish a post in January formalizing these milestones, followed by a technical update detailing proof system techniques for meeting the targeted security levels and proof sizes. Ethproofs will also be updated to reflect the shift toward emphasizing security alongside performance. Support from the Foundation’s cryptography team will be available throughout this process. With the performance sprint complete, attention is now turning to strengthening the foundations.