2026 will mark a turning point for Ethereum's ZK scaling, as the verification mechanism undergoes a transformation akin to the merge

Researchers and developers expect that 2026 will be a key year for Ethereum to achieve exponential scalability through zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). By then, some Ethereum validators will no longer re-execute transactions but will directly verify ZK proofs, fundamentally changing the way the blockchain operates, with scalability comparable to Ethereum's transition from PoW to PoS in "The Merge" in 2022.

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake stated that the first validators will begin to verify ZK proofs for each block instead of re-executing all transactions, which will bring immediate scalability benefits to Layer 1 and lay the groundwork for 10,000 TPS in the future. Currently, the Ethereum mainnet has a throughput of about 30 TPS. During Devconnect, Drake demonstrated that ZK proof verification could be completed using an old laptop, and it is expected that by the end of 2026, about 10% of validators will switch to ZK verification mode (Lean Execution Phase 1). This transition will significantly reduce the hardware requirements for validating nodes while maintaining network decentralization.

Ethereum Besu client engineer Gary Schulte pointed out that future compute-intensive tasks will mainly be handled by block builders and ZK provers, while regular validators will only need to perform lightweight checks, creating conditions for increasing gas limits and overall throughput. On the roadmap, Ethereum is currently still in Phase 0 (voluntary validation), expected to enter Phase 1 (partial validator switch) in 2026, and move into Phase 2 in 2027, which will require block producers to generate ZK proofs, achieving fully ZK execution.