In the news today is Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin He said That ETH could become a fully zero-knowledge proof-based protocol within 3 to 5 years proves this prediction to be true. Lean Ethereum A proposal from Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, which targets 10,000+ transactions per second on the mainnet by validating the original ZK at Layer 1.
Lubin’s statements were as follows: Ethereum’s top tier continues to face throughput pressure Since Vitalik Buterin has publicly backed away from describing clusters as a permanent architectural destination, Buterin stated earlier in 2026 that most L2S are becoming “branded parts” rather than truly different implementation environments.
Joe Lubin predicts that Ethereum will become a fully ZK-resistant protocol within 3-5 years.
In an interview on June 10, the Ethereum co-founder said ZK’s ongoing innovations will enhance L1 while providing the ability to compose concurrently with L2s, enabling atomic execution and standardization…
– It unfolded. (@cryptounfolded) June 10, 2026
The analytical question is not whether Ethereum will eventually integrate ZK proofs; Rather, it is whether Lubin’s recasting of the Age of Accumulation as a deliberate strategic phase reflects a coherent long-term plan, or a retrospective narrative applied to a roadmap that has drifted far beyond intended.
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Ethereum News: ZK Convergence Roadmap, What the Lupine Framework Actually Establishes
The Mechanism Is Bigger Than News The Ethereum ecosystem, in Lupine’s framework, has gone through a “divergence phase” in which the pool-centric roadmap — formalized from 2020 to 2021 — intentionally pushed implementation off-chain to layer-2 networks like Linea and Gnosis, allowing zero-knowledge proof technology to mature in production environments before being re-integrated into L1.
This re-integration is what Lubin calls the “convergence phase,” where real-time ZK, which proves that it is indeed running on L2s, moves up into the mainnet, eventually collapsing the distinction between layers in the context of a single atomic execution as assets move without bridges and liquidity fragmentation disappears.
The Lean Ethereum proposal, written by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, operationalizes this convergence target at L1 with a throughput cap of over 10,000 TPS — a number that would represent a significant improvement over current mainnet capacity and a direct answer to competing layer-1 architectures; Upgrade Solana’s Alpenglow,For example, a validation tool is currently being tested with ,subsecond final accuracy as its main metric.
Photo: Joe Lubin
It is necessary to mention the cognitive state in several details here. The timeline for a phased rollout, a subscription validation phase in 2026, and a mandatory transition by 2027, has been reported in pro coverage but had not been independently confirmed by the Ethereum Foundation at the time of publication.
What’s been confirmed: EF has published plans for an optional L1 zkEVM client as a first step toward full ZK integration, and Lubin’s Consensys-built Linea is already running ZK proofs in production, including concurrent installation experiments that Lubin has previously described as “the holy grail of our ecosystem.” Developed in part by contributors with EF backgrounds, Gnosis’s Ethereum economic zone seeks to achieve a similar integration and common execution context between L1 and L2 with tighter composability and shared security.
What has yet to be resolved is the pace at which making zkEVM verification mandatory at the consensus layer could clear the required auditing, formal verification, and client diversity work, timelines that some protocol developers estimate to be longer than the 3-5 year Lubin window suggests.
Regarding the restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation, Lubin was categorical: “There will not be a second foundation.” Instead, he noted, at least three groups will emerge from the Ethereum Foundation, each focusing on separate delegations, core protocol development, ease of use and scalability, and enterprise communication, while the EF itself narrows down to what Lubin called “CROPs” components. This regulatory fragmentation is not positioned as instability but as a preparation for the coordination requirements of heavy ZK protocol transition.
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Daniel Francis is a technical writer and Web3 educator specializing in macroeconomics and DeFi mechanics. A crypto native since 2017, Daniel brings his background in cross-chain analytics to author evidence-based reports and detailed guides. It is certified by the Blockchain Council and is dedicated to providing “information gain” that cuts through the market noise to find blockchain’s real-world utility.
