As is well known, Ethereum was born from PoW (Proof of Work) and successfully transitioned to PoS (Proof of Stake) in 2021. In this regard, Justin Drake, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, believes that although the Beacon Chain was effective when PoS was first introduced, it has accumulated some 'technical debt' over the past five years, as its design has not leveraged cutting-edge technologies from decentralized systems (such as zero-knowledge proofs). Therefore, the consensus layer of Ethereum urgently needs a major overhaul.
In a recent speech at the Bangkok Devcon, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake announced a proposal to fundamentally reform Ethereum's consensus layer, called 'Beam Chain'.
This is part of Ethereum's long-term roadmap, allowing Ethereum to leverage the breakthroughs at the forefront of current ZK cryptography, aiming to significantly improve network scalability and performance without launching a new network. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most important upgrades for Ethereum in the next 3-5 years.
Beam Chain is not a new blockchain in the literal sense, but a new infrastructure built within the Ethereum mainnet that will greatly improve the transaction speed, security, and efficiency of the L1 mainnet. Some interpret Beam Chain as Ethereum 3.0, which is a misunderstanding, as Beam Chain only addresses consensus layer issues without changing the data layer (like blob channels) or execution layer (like Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)).
The five core transformations of Beam Chain are:
1. Faster Block Confirmation: Enabling 4-second slot time and single-slot finality.
2. Not at the expense of decentralization: Preserving or enhancing current decentralization guarantees
3. Lowering Staking Threshold: Reducing ETH Staking from 32 ETH to just 1 ETH
4. Protecting Ordinary Users: Eliminating MEV based on block reorganization
5. Future-oriented: Equipping the Ethereum network with quantum resistance capabilities
Upgrade Ideas and Principles of Beam Chain
1. Increased Block Output
Higher Throughput: Beam Chain will increase block production capacity to three times the current level, enhancing Ethereum's transaction capacity.
Anti-censorship: The introduction of FOCIL (Fork Choice Forced Inclusion List) enhances censorship resistance, ensuring that transactions cannot easily be excluded by malicious actors.
Executing Auction Isolation for Validators: Validators will use execution auctions for isolation, ensuring stronger performance and decentralization, allowing more users to be free from MEV interference.
Faster Finality: Ethereum will feature single-slot finality and 4-second block times, enabling quicker transaction confirmations and improving network efficiency.
Interestingly, exchanges will no longer need to wait for block confirmations of 1/32, 2/32, 3/32... because in the future, a single block will suffice for confirmation.
2. Improving Staking
Improving the Issuance Model: Changes to the reward issuance model for validators to yield more returns for staking.
Lowering Staking Requirements: Independent validators only need to stake 1 ETH, significantly below the current threshold of 32 ETH, making independent staking simpler and more widespread.
We believe that for Ethereum to accommodate more nodes in consensus while speeding up and not significantly changing hardware requirements, breaking the staking impossibility triangle is truly thanks to ZK technology, which is indeed far ahead of the industry.
3. Enhanced Security
Post-Quantum Cryptography: Ethereum will implement quantum-resistant cryptography to protect the network from quantum computing threats, taking the first step towards mainstream blockchain quantum resistance.
zkSNARK and zkVM Integration: Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) will be integrated with Ethereum through zkSNARK and zkVM to further enhance privacy, scalability, and security.
SNARKification of Blockchain: Ethereum will utilize RISC-V to SNARKify the blockchain, a process that can improve the efficiency and scalability of proof generation. SNARK is a compact form of zero-knowledge proof that allows one party to prove they possess information without revealing it or requiring interaction between the prover and verifier.
In short, we can summarize it as: making the entire Ethereum directly ZK-enabled.
Enhancing Randomness: Ethereum will also introduce strong randomness to ensure fairness in key network processes like selecting validators.
Reducing MEV Risk: Better censorship resistance can minimize the proliferation of bots such as sandwich attacks.
4. How It Works
Since the design of Ethereum's current consensus layer (Beacon Chain) was established, cryptographers have made significant progress in SNARK. By SNARKifying Ethereum's state transition function (i.e., the messages of state changes integrated to maintain validators' correct view of the blockchain), 4-second slot times and single-slot finality can be achieved.
On one hand, the reduction in block production and finality times positively impacts the waiting time for Ethereum L1 transaction experience;
On the other hand, it can also eliminate potential value extraction from transactions through remote block reorganization strategies and reduce technical debt in the consensus layer.
Moreover, SNARKification will make the Ethereum network quantum-resistant, which is a necessary feature for future blockchains.
Beam Chain will advance Ethereum's upgrade from the following aspects:
Using Sharding to Accelerate Processing Speed: Ethereum Beam Chain will utilize sharding technology, dividing data into smaller parts (shards) to process multiple transactions simultaneously. This will reduce transaction bottlenecks and speed up transaction times.
Quantum Computing Resistance Security: Ethereum will utilize cutting-edge cryptographic technology to ensure that even future super quantum computers cannot compromise the network's security.
Integration with Ethereum Roadmap: Beam Chain is not an independent network, but an integrated phase of Ethereum's roadmap for expansion and enhanced security over the next 5 years.
5. Significant Importance
Beam Chain is crucial for Ethereum's ability to handle the increasing number of decentralized applications — it can enhance Ethereum's scalability, reduce transaction costs, and improve overall security, allowing the network to support more users and complex applications over time.
Another major benefit of SNARK-based proofs is: it allows ordinary stakers with standard hardware to achieve the mentioned performance advantages. After the staking threshold is reduced from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, the decentralization of the Ethereum staker community will also improve as network performance increases.
Especially with the lowering of thresholds, if paired with relevant hardware devices, such as Ebunker’s eNode, allowing home-level validator devices to reach every household, Ethereum remains the most decentralized public chain in the world with the most nodes.
Although the vision of Beam Chain will not immediately change Ethereum, nor will it significantly alter its long-term roadmap, its adoption will change the priority of roadmap development, accelerating the development of specific components (for example, the current roadmap sets some important upgrades for 2029, while Beam Chain may expedite the arrival of these important upgrades).
If Beam Chain receives sufficient community support, developers can begin drafting specifications next year, followed by production-level code written by developer client teams in 2026, testing in 2027, and finally safely deploying on the Ethereum mainnet. Although the implementation of Beam Chain seems distant, such security redundancies are extremely necessary for decentralized, open-source software.
In short, Beam Chain addresses past 'technical debt' through the ZK approach, and these improvements are expected to significantly enhance its L1 functionality while retaining Ethereum’s 'world-class decentralization'.
At the same time, the long-term solutions introduced by new ideas, such as quantum resistance, will put Ethereum's consensus layer in 'maintenance mode', ensuring that Ethereum remains secure, efficient, and adaptable over the next few decades, enabling future innovations without disruptive redesigns.
Ethereum continues to tirelessly make long-term plans, which is an exciting update for the blockchain and the entire industry, allowing us to maintain an optimistic foundation for Ethereum even amid today’s booming market conditions.
