The most significant step change for Ethereum since the Merge, zkEVM, is live today. The future is now. [SERIOUS]

Okay guys, this one is gonna get a little geeky, but hopefully, we can get there together! I'm by no means trained in computer science or development, so please correct me if I make any mistakes.

zkEVM (zero knowledge EVM compatible proofs) - was talked about this time last year as a possibility, but almost fantasy in terms of when it would be implemented to Ethereum. However, fast forward to today and we are now living in a world where zkEVMs are live on Ethereum, a true step in Ethereum becoming the world computer.

To give some idea of how far the space has come in just a year, I insert a snippet of a blog post written by Vitalik ~ 1 year ago:

Source: https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/08/04/zkevm.html

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Zeth, the first layer 0 zkEVM is now live, and does all of the following (and more):

• Verifying transaction signatures.
• Verifying account & storage state against the parent block’s state root.
• Applying transactions.
• Paying fees to the block author.
• Updating the state root.

This graphical summary, again from Vitaliks blog post goes a long way to summarising the diverse range of functionalities required.

https://preview.redd.it/e50b66tws3kb1.png?856&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d201f3c8f6ef502f2edff92ee3891e77e03c4b1

Type 0 zkEVMs allow devs to construct ZK rollups with native EVM and Ethereum support. So building an L2 that is powered by ZKs should now be simpler for devs. I know a lot of us retail investors may not care about this, but if you really love the technology behind Ethereum, this is actually a huge deal. And because of its complexity, it will likely go unnoticed by retail, as has so much of the technological advancements Ethereum has made over the year. However, this all feeds into the evolution of a better Ethereum, building towards the world computer.

And because it's Ethereum, there is always a 'what's next' as so many devs are working on it. So, in this case, it's SNARKS and 'the verge' as Vitalik coined it. This will effectively allow users to fully sync with Ethereum Layer 1 by verifying a single SNARK, but this requires extending zkEVMs to the consensus layer.

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https://preview.redd.it/yhe6w6xz74kb1.png?1760&format=png&auto=webp&s=36e9fa93026ac216f907ca8a362a491ffee5b19e

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Many of you will be thinking "Cool. But will the price go up?" Well, if you contextualise this into the future of Ethereum and how it may look as more and more L2s are developed and we get to a point where it's not even a question. the default is to build on Ethereum, it will likely capture more of the market, generate more fee revenue and make ETH a more desirable and required asset, for Ethereum Layer 1 will remain the consensus layer.

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Sources:

Press release: https://www.risczero.com/news/zeth-release

Vitaliks blog post: https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/08/04/zkevm.html

A great podcast on the topic: https://twitter.com/StrangeH2OPod/status/1694688015652732937

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