Ethereum 3.0: Technical Breakthroughs and Future Prospects of the Beam Chain Proposal

The Devcon conference in 2024 successfully concluded in Bangkok, during which Ethereum ecosystem projects released their latest developments, attracting widespread attention from the global Web3 community. Among them, the "Ethereum 3.0" Beam Chain proposal put forward by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake was particularly noteworthy.

The core idea of the Beam Chain proposal is to optimize the computational and communication burdens of verification nodes using zero-knowledge proof technology, thereby lowering the threshold for becoming a validator. This improvement is expected to attract more validators to join the network, enhancing overall security and efficiency. At the same time, the proposal also aims to address the technical debt left in the Beacon chain and prepare for potential threats from quantum computing in the future.

This proposal aligns with Vitalik's previously proposed The Verge roadmap. The Verge roadmap includes plans to transform the Ethereum consensus layer and execution layer through zero-knowledge proofs. Vitalik recently admitted that the transformation of the consensus layer is a challenging task that requires continuous optimization in the future.

The Beam Chain proposal mainly focuses on the transformation of the consensus layer. Specifically, it only requires the state transition function to be SNARKified, which is the advantage of zero-knowledge proof technology. The state transition function of the consensus layer mainly includes three parts: per time slot, per block, and per epoch, involving multiple aspects such as consensus algorithm execution, block proposal, and execution layer result verification. It is worth noting that Ethereum still adheres to the principles of decentralization and diversity in this process, and does not enforce the use of specific zero-knowledge proof algorithms, but rather allows proposers to choose independently.

The core challenge in realizing the Beam Chain concept lies in how to reduce the current proof time, which requires dozens or even hundreds of seconds, to the level of seconds. At a seminar in September this year, Justin proposed a solution using ASIC chips for acceleration, hoping to increase the proof generation time by more than ten times in the coming years and achieve real-time proof.

Some technical teams have made significant progress in this field. For example, some teams have accelerated various zero-knowledge proof systems using hardware platforms such as GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs, achieving speedups of over a hundred times for some core algorithms. In the area of combining artificial intelligence with zero-knowledge proofs, there are also teams that have reduced the first token generation time of large language models from 4 hours to about 18 minutes.

In the face of the potential threat posed by quantum computing, the industry is actively exploring solutions. Some teams have developed a cryptographic library based on OpenSSL that supports multiple NIST standard post-quantum algorithms, and by optimizing the consensus process and memory reading, the performance of the quantum-resistant blockchain can reach about 50% of the original chain.

These technological breakthroughs have already been applied in some commercial products. For example, a team launched a hardware and software integrated acceleration solution that optimized algorithms commonly used in zero-knowledge proofs, significantly improving computational efficiency.

For a long time, the Ethereum community has primarily focused on optimizing the execution layer, such as increasing the block gas limit and developing layer two networks. The SNARKification of the execution layer has already achieved significant results through layer two network solutions. The proposal of Beam Chain opens a new chapter for the SNARKification of the consensus layer, and it is believed that this will stimulate more thinking in the community about the transformation of the consensus layer.

It is foreseeable that with the SNARKification of the consensus layer and the execution layer, the overall SNARKification blueprint of Ethereum will gradually improve, bringing significant enhancements to its scalability and decentralization. The advancement of the Beam Chain proposal also means that virtual machines based on zero-knowledge proofs will play a more important role in the Ethereum ecosystem. By introducing SNARK proofs and post-quantum cryptography, combined with lower staking thresholds and faster block confirmation times, the Beam Chain is expected to bring stronger decentralization and higher performance to Ethereum.