Beam Chain: Ethereum's next generation upgrade

The Devcon conference in 2024 successfully concluded in Bangkok, attracting many participants from the Ethereum ecosystem. Various innovative ideas and cutting-edge trends sparked enthusiastic discussions in the global Web3 community.

Among them, the concept of "Ethereum 3.0" proposed by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake is particularly noteworthy. This consensus layer upgrade plan, known as Beam Chain, aims to reduce the computational and communication costs for validators through zero-knowledge proof technology, thereby lowering the participation threshold and attracting more validators to join the network. This is expected to enhance network security while also reducing computational redundancy and improving overall efficiency. At the same time, Drake hopes to take this opportunity to address the historical technical debt in the Beacon Chain and prepare for potential quantum computing threats in the future.

The proposal of Beam Chain coincides with the The Verge roadmap previously outlined by Vitalik Buterin. The Verge roadmap includes plans to implement Snark transformations on Ethereum, covering both the consensus layer and the execution layer. Vitalik recently acknowledged that the transformation of the consensus layer is a significant challenge that requires ongoing thought and optimization.

Beam Chain mainly focuses on the transformation of the consensus layer. This process does not require a complete reconstruction of all parts, but rather the Snarkification of the core state transition function. Specifically, this involves three state transition functions: per-slot, per-block, and per-epoch, including the execution of the consensus algorithm, block proposals, execution layer result verification, Merkle tree root verification, consensus signature verification/aggregation, hash computation, and staking-related operations. It is worth noting that while Ethereum is advancing Snarkification, it still adheres to the principles of decentralization and diversity, allowing proposers to autonomously choose ZK algorithms and protocols.

The core challenge of realizing the Beam Chain concept lies in improving proof efficiency, with the goal of compressing the current proof time, which can take tens or even hundreds of seconds, down to the second level. To this end, the industry is exploring the use of ASIC acceleration methods, hoping to complete the entire process from evidence generation to proof at the chip level, aiming to increase proof generation time by more than ten times in the coming years and achieve real-time proof.

Currently, multiple research teams are actively promoting the performance optimization and application expansion of zero-knowledge proof technology. Some institutions are utilizing hardware platforms such as GPU, FPGA, and ASIC to accelerate ZK proofs, covering various ZK systems, with some core operators achieving acceleration ratios of over a hundred times. At the same time, significant progress has also been made in the field of AI combined with ZK, such as reducing the first token generation time of zkLLM from 4 hours to about 18 minutes.

In addition, to address the potential threats of quantum computing, some teams have developed cryptographic libraries that support multiple NIST standard post-quantum algorithms, and by optimizing the consensus process and memory reading, the TPS of quantum-resistant blockchains can reach about 50% of the original chain.

With the advancement of the Beam Chain proposal, the zero-knowledge proof-based virtual machine is expected to 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, Beam Chain is expected to bring stronger decentralization features and higher performance to Ethereum. This development will complement the Snarkification efforts of the execution layer, jointly promoting Ethereum's evolution towards a more efficient and secure direction.