Ethereum's 2026 will be a turning point. According to the latest roadmap, validator nodes will change the way they operate — no longer processing each transaction one by one, but directly verifying ZK proofs.

How to understand this? Simply put, validators used to execute transactions step by step, now they only need to confirm that the proof is correct. What's the benefit of this approach? The computational burden on nodes is greatly reduced, with specialized provers handling the heavy lifting.

The implementation plan is divided into two steps:

In 2026, the first phase will occur, where approximately 10% of validators will voluntarily switch to ZK verification mode, allowing the mainnet to start experiencing the performance improvements of this new mechanism.

In 2027, the second phase will arrive, requiring all blocks to generate ZK proofs, achieving full network ZK execution.

The performance goal is 10,000 TPS, which sounds impressive. But even more significant is — the hardware requirements for verification will be drastically lowered, to the point where even old laptops can run validator nodes. What does this mean? More ordinary users can participate in node operation, significantly increasing the decentralization of the network.