2025-12-27 06:20:58

Is Ethereum's underlying technology brewing a transformative shift? 🔥 The core research team has set 2026 as a pivotal year—zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) could drive exponential scaling upgrades for the network. Vitalik Buterin's recent statement is quite interesting: "Ethereum will surprise everyone!" Is this a vision of the future, or are there concrete technological breakthroughs on the horizon?

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**Fundamental Innovation in Verification Methods**

Hardware barriers are being broken down. Researchers demonstrated the feasibility of verifying ZK proofs on an old laptop—according to plan, by the end of 2026, about 10% of validators will switch to this lightweight mode.

What does this mean? Currently, the mainnet's throughput is stuck at 30 TPS. If ZK verification truly becomes practical, could it pave the way for the goal of thousands of TPS? The entire verification ecosystem is also being reshaped: computational tasks flow to specialized provers, while ordinary validators only need to perform lightweight checks. In theory, this will significantly raise the gas limit and the ceiling for network throughput.

**Data-Driven Upgrade Potential**

After the merge, Ethereum's energy consumption has decreased by 99.95%, and staking APR remains stable around 3.5%. The Layer 2 ecosystem is accelerating—speed increases by hundreds of times, and TVL has regained the trillion-dollar scale. Developer teams are growing by about 40% annually, with zk-Rollups and account abstraction technologies advancing in parallel.

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**But there are still questions in reality**

Although ZK technology looks promising, risks during implementation cannot be ignored: from laboratory tests to large-scale applications, could hidden issues emerge that we haven't foreseen? Can Ethereum's scaling pace keep up with market expectations?

V神's statement about "surprise"—is it full of confidence or a long-term goal? Technological imagination is never lacking, but ultimately, it must be tested through code and network effects. Can this transformation, which started in research labs, reshape the entire landscape of blockchain competition?

Do you think this "surprise" will come from breakthroughs in ZK, or from other areas? Where will Ethereum head in 2026?

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zkProofInThePudding

· 12-27 06:50

They're making promises again. 30 TPS has been stuck for so long, and only 10% of validators will switch by 2026? Just listen and don't take it seriously.

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DegenWhisperer

· 12-27 06:49

It's another 2026 Bitcoin, probably still 30 TPS then haha --- That sentence from Vitalik sounds like he's comforting us. Good-looking lab data doesn't mean the network can really handle it --- 10% of validators switching to lightweight mode? Sounds great, but can gas fees really drop? Question mark --- Reaching a trillion TVL again, but smart contract vulnerabilities and audit costs remain the same. Who will solve this? --- ZK implementation, Sol and Arbitrum have been running already, Ethereum is still researching. Now that's truly "surprising" --- Breaking hardware barriers sounds good, but will ordinary people really run validators themselves? Honestly, it's still those miners making money --- Remember those years when Ethereum also made countless promises of "changing everything" soon --- Staking with a 3.5% APR really doesn't sound attractive anymore, better to buy government bonds for stability --- I just want to know, will this ZK project delay again until 2027 or 2028? --- A 40% annual increase in developers is good news, but what about the ecosystem applications? Still just speculating on coins

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UncleWhale

· 12-27 06:49

Will 2026 really arrive? It feels like we're waiting for the next "surprise" every year. Both ZK and multi-thousand TPS sound great, but I'm more concerned about the actual timeline for launch. V神's "surprise" comment is indeed a bit虚, is it a technological breakthrough or just another fundraising story? Regarding old graphics cards verifying ZK, it feels just like the PoS promises back in the day—waiting a few years to see real results. Honestly, Layer2 is working quite comfortably now; no rush for Ethereum's underlying upgrades. Anyway, Arbitrum is fast enough. 2026 is still far away; by then, the coin prices will have gone through several ups and downs, and the topic will have changed. Promises of a hundredfold increase in TPS have been heard too many times. Code is law—let's see what happens when it's implemented.

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CryptoGoldmine

· 12-27 06:47

30 TPS stuck for so long, which shows that ZK technology is truly being implemented and is worth paying attention to. However, the switch of 10% of validators to 2026 seems a bit conservative given this progress. --- Staking APR remains steady at 3.5%. Compared to mining hash power returns, this yield isn't very attractive. It might be better to look at the growth curve of Layer2's TVL, which is the real opportunity for deployment. --- V God's "surprise" is heard too often. First, let's see how long it takes to go from lab to mainnet. Technical iterations must be proven with code; talking on paper is meaningless. --- The goal of 100,000 TPS sounds great, but the actual difficulty adjustment and network stability can't keep up. Be rational; the key is still how high the gas limit can be pushed. --- Developer growth of 40% annually is indeed good data. But the real validation depends on the actual throughput performance of zk-Rollups, not just the concept. --- Hardware thresholds have lowered, and ordinary people can run validation nodes. This is a good idea. But we haven't seen the pitfalls between theory and large-scale application yet.

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ImpermanentSage

· 12-27 06:47

Wait a minute, is Satoshi again making promises? Going from 30 TPS to tens of thousands of TPS—such a huge gap is unbelievable... The old laptop in the lab can run ZK, but deploying on the mainnet is another story. Will 10% of validators really switch by 2026? I feel like this is another scenario of perfect technology versus harsh reality... ZK is indeed impressive, but the Rollup ecosystem has already been running. Why wait for the "big surprise" in 2026? It feels a bit like hype.

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PumpStrategist

· 12-27 06:26

Looking at this pattern, it's a typical "technology option" pricing logic. Switching 10% of validators by the end of 2026? The distribution of chips shows that big players have already laid out early, and retail investors chasing the high now are just taking over the positions. V神's "surprise" is vague; I think the interesting point lies in the actual implementation speed of ZK. Going from 30 TPS to tens of thousands? The technical risks involved haven't been fully quantified yet. Staking APR remains steady at 3.5%, and Layer2 TVL has surpassed 100 billion. These numbers look impressive on the surface, but can they really support the valuation expectations? I'm not so sure. From a probabilistic strategy perspective, there's still 24 months of market sentiment battles before 2026. Trust me, don't be fooled by those "revolutionary breakthroughs." Wait until the mainnet deployment is actually in place before going all in; the risk mitigation isn't sufficient yet.

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