Ethereum is edging closer to achieving 10,000 transactions per second with the launch of a new scaling technology known as Pico Prism.
On Wednesday, Ethereum scaling firm Brevis announced a revolutionary zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) for real-time proving.
This innovation enables nearly instant proof of Ethereum blocks using standard retail gaming processors (GPUs) rather than costly supercomputers.
“Brevis has achieved real-time proving of Ethereum L1 using consumer-grade hardware,” stated the firm, noting that 64 Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics cards, their leading gaming model, were utilized.
In a test performed in September, Pico Prism demonstrated 99.6% real-time proving in under 12 seconds. Real-time proving (RTP) refers to the generation of a cryptographic proof that a block was executed correctly more quickly than new blocks are created.
“This marks a significant leap toward scaling Ethereum by 100x and a future where you can validate the chain from a smartphone.”
Brevis aims to achieve 99% real-time proving with fewer than 16 RTX 5090 GPUs “in the coming months.”
Significant Advancement in Ethereum Scaling
This development indicates that the computationally intensive process of proving has finally matched the speed of block production using affordable consumer hardware, making lightweight validation feasible for the first time.
Currently, each validator re-executes all transactions to verify blocks, which requires expensive equipment and creates a major bottleneck, explained Brevis.
“Real-time proving disrupts this model. One prover produces a proof, and all others verify it in milliseconds.”
The Journey to 10,000 TPS
According to Ethereum’s roadmap, validators will transition from re-executing transactions to merely verifying ZK-proofs, allowing the base layer to achieve 10,000 transactions per second.
“At a rate of three times per year, Ethereum L1 could reach 10k TPS by April 2029,” noted Ryan Sean Adams from Bankless.
Related: Ethereum Foundation roadmap aims for zkEVM on mainnet within the year
The upcoming Fusaka upgrade to Ethereum, scheduled for December, will facilitate real-time proving, explained Bitcoin security researcher Justin Drake.
“EIP-7825 limits gas usage per transaction, allowing for increased parallel proving through subblocks,” he added, “By year-end, multiple teams will validate every L1 EVM block on a 16-GPU cluster, using less than 10kW in total.”
Future of Phones as Nodes
It is “a significant move toward Ethereum’s future,” said the Ethereum Foundation, which further remarked:
“ZK technology like Pico Prism will enable Ethereum to scale to meet global demand, while remaining trustworthy and decentralized.”
“The phone-as-a-node future has become a reality,” said tech entrepreneur Mike Warner.
Ethereum is evolving into a zk-chain, stated Adams, clarifying that layer-1 will support global DeFi with large blocks at 10,000 TPS, and nodes operating on mobile devices, while layer-2 will handle all other functions.
This represents the ultimate goal of blockchain: extensive scalability without compromising decentralization or security.
Magazine: Ethereum’s roadmap to 10,000 TPS using ZK tech: A beginner’s guide
