An Ethereum researcher, Justin Drake, recently presented a forward-thinking concept known as
“Lean Ethereum.” This idea, revealed on July 31st, reimagines the foundational layer of Ethereum, emphasizing resilience against both nation-state level attacks and potential quantum computing threats. Furthermore, it prioritizes significantly enhanced performance without compromising the core principle of decentralization.
These guidelines have been succinctly termed “fort mode” to represent enhanced security and “beast mode” to describe the target of superior performance.
Published through the Ethereum Foundation blog, the vision outlines a pathway for Ethereum to simultaneously bolster its security infrastructure and achieve remarkable scalability. This is accomplished by leveraging hash-based cryptography as the bedrock of the mainnet and re-architecting all three essential sublayers of the protocol: consensus, data handling, and execution.
Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, and Drake have previously discussed this “Lean Ethereum” concept at a recent Ethereum-centered conference in Berlin.
Fort Mode and Beast Mode
Drake’s line of reasoning centers around the concept that Ethereum must remain functional and secure for decades, even centuries, enduring potential hostile environments.
The roadmap articulates a primary objective: ensuring that “if the internet is operational, then Ethereum is operational.” In terms of performance, Lean Ethereum aims for roughly 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on the mainnet through vertical scaling. Additionally, it strives for approximately 1 million TPS on layer-2 (L2) blockchains utilizing expansive horizontal scaling.
Drake further indicated that enabling sophisticated mathematical computations is now a realistic goal. He proposed the implementation of real-time zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) for transaction execution and data availability sampling (DAS) to optimize data throughput.
Another key usability goal is the possibility of full-chain verification on everyday consumer devices, including browsers, smartphones, and digital wallets.
Three “Lean” Sublayers
The Lean Ethereum proposal includes coordinated improvements across three core areas. The first is “Lean Consensus,” also referred to as Beacon Chain 2.0, which aims to strengthen the Beacon Chain to provide the highest levels of security and decentralization, with transaction finality achieved within seconds.
The second layer is “Lean Data” (Blobs 2.0). The primary goal is to facilitate post-quantum resistant “blobs” that offer customizable sizing. This approach preserves the developer experience similar to calldata while enhancing throughput capabilities.
Finally, “Lean Execution” (EVM 2.0) involves a simplified, SNARK-compatible instruction set that maintains compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and its well-established network. The focus is to accelerate the proving and verification processes.
Collectively, these enhancements are designed to unlock substantial performance gains, all while maintaining unwavering continuity and simplifying processes.
Hash-Based Crypto as the Standard Fabric
Lean Ethereum promotes the hash function as the central building block across all layers. This includes utilizing aggregate signatures within consensus, replacing Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) with hash-based commitments, and streamlining execution verification through hash-centric zkVMs.
This approach is intended to simultaneously provide future-proof security against quantum threats while aligning with the increasing use of SNARKs throughout the Ethereum ecosystem.
Drake explained that Lean Ethereum serves not only as a roadmap, but also embodies a specific engineering philosophy. The concept emphasizes modular designs, encapsulated complexity, formal verification methods, and demonstrable security and optimality.
The focus on “lean craft” seeks to eliminate unnecessary complexity while adopting standardized primitives that are simpler to understand, analyze, and verify.