TechFlow reports that on February 10, ladislaus.eth, a member of the Ethereum Foundation, announced Ethereum is undergoing a critical architectural shift—upgrading block validation from re-executing every transaction to verifying zero-knowledge proofs (ZK Proofs). According to the newly released L1-zkEVM 2026 Roadmap, the optional Execution Proof proposal known as EIP-8025 will enable validating nodes (zkAttesters) to confirm block validity solely by verifying cryptographic proofs, without needing to run a full execution-layer client.
This transformation will significantly reduce hardware requirements for running nodes, shorten synchronization time from several hours to just a few minutes, and allow Ethereum to raise its gas limit without compromising decentralization. This capability relies on ePBS (proposer-builder separation), scheduled for implementation in the upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork, which will provide sufficient time windows for proof generation.
The inaugural L1-zkEVM workshop is set for February 11, 2026, and will cover six subtopics, including execution witness standardization, zkVM-client API, and consensus-layer integration.
