EF Director: The future of Ethereum depends on the direct integration of zero-knowledge proofs

On January 11th, Hsiao-Wei Wang, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, stated that Ethereum is steadily moving towards a future where zero-knowledge cryptography becomes the core of the network. Years of research are now merging with real-world progress. Zero-knowledge proofs are part of Ethereum’s mid-term roadmap, with several breakthroughs achieved in the past one or two years. Although the current upgrade focus remains on improving the execution of Layer 2 networks and Blob space, zero-knowledge proofs as a protocol-level feature are becoming increasingly feasible. Additionally, Ethereum researchers have released the native zkEVM plan, allowing the network to default to zero-knowledge proof verification for transactions. This technology can significantly reduce the workload required to secure Ethereum and enable scalability without sacrificing decentralization or reliability. Hsiao-Wei Wang emphasized that even as the network continues to evolve, resilience, security, censorship resistance, and neutrality remain at the core of Ethereum.