Ethereum Foundation is refocusing on security instead of speed, adopting a 128-bit standard by 2026.

The zkEVM ecosystem has just experienced a year of explosive performance acceleration. Proof-building time for an Ethereum block has dropped from tens of minutes to just seconds, computational costs have plummeted, and the vast majority of blocks on the mainnet can now be proven in under 10 seconds on the target hardware. On December 18th, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) confirmed a significant milestone: near real-time proof-building is now possible.

However, once the fundamental speed problem is solved, the focus shifts entirely to security. EF warns that many STARK-based zkEVMs have achieved high performance thanks to mathematical assumptions that have not been fully proven. Recently, several fundamental assumptions for low-level checks have been refuted, undermining the actual security of configurations once considered secure.

With Ethereum L1, EF emphasized that only one standard is acceptable: provable security, not security based on assumptions. The 128-bit benchmark was chosen as the long-term standard, aligning with modern cryptographic standards.

Therefore, EF announced a three-phase roadmap to the end of 2026, requiring zkEVMs to be not only fast but also mathematically robust, with minimal proof, verifiable on-chain, and secure enough to protect hundreds of billions of dollars worth of value. The performance race is over — the security race has truly begun.