Can the ZK technology advocated by Vitalik really solve the scalability of Ethereum?

Recently, Vitalik Buterin has made a big move again—combining ZK proofs, MPC, and fully homomorphic encryption, which sound very mysterious, directly targeting the “Unholy Trinity” of blockchain (scalability, security, and decentralization).

The most critical data has arrived: the GKR new protocol reduces ZK verification costs by 15 times, ZKsync can now run at 43000 TPS, and the fees are incredibly low. For comparison, this directly slaps Ethereum's scalability dilemma in the face.

Is the market buying it? Of course, it's buying it. The ZK Layer 2 track is expected to grow to $9 billion by 2031, with an annual growth rate of 60.7%. StarkNet's TVL tripled in Q3 to $72 million, and big companies are also starting to move — Deutsche Bank and Sony are using ZK-rollups for compliance processes, and it is expected that by the end of the year, these will support 83% of enterprise smart contracts.

But don't get too excited; there are plenty of pitfalls. Privacy coin Zcash is now under tight regulatory scrutiny, and the technical threshold for GKR is exceptionally high, making it difficult for small projects to participate. Another frustrating issue is that Ethereum removed the modexp precompiled feature in order to “slim down,” which has actually caused gas fees to soar in the short term.

Summary: ZK does have something going for it this time, but whether it can truly become mainstream depends on whether it can withstand the two mountains of regulation and technology.