Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joseph Rubin said the network could become a completely zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-based protocol within three to five years. This statement was made in an interview published by The Block on June 10, 2026, in which he defended the evolution of Ethereum’s scalability roadmap.
According to Lubin, advances in ZK testing and mainnet improvements strengthen the rollup-centric model that Ethereum has pursued over the past few years. The executive mentioned the introduction of technologies such as the Lean Ethereum project, proposed simplification and expansion of the main network, and expansion of cryptographic verification systems. It has the potential to gradually transform your network architecture.
“Ethereum has the potential to become a protocol based entirely on zero-knowledge proofs,” Rubin said, believing that this transition will not only strengthen the security and efficiency of the base layer (L1), but also improve interaction with the second layer network (L2).
It is worth noting that the proposal arrives Ethereum internal review moment. Over the past few months, some of the company’s top leaders have reevaluated their so-called rollup-centric roadmap. This roadmap was originally designed to solve scalability issues through an ecosystem of semi-interconnected chains that settle transactions on the mainnet.
Among the critics is Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, who noted earlier this year that his original vision had not been fully realized. And, as CriptoNoticias reported, many second-tier solutions were at best “branded shards.” From that review, the Ethereum Foundation once again prioritized direct improvements to the base layer to make it faster, cheaper, and more competitive compared to other networks.
Despite this criticism, Rubin maintains that L2 remains a fundamental part of the ecosystem. In his opinion, these networks It has served as a testing ground for complex technologies. This can later be moved to Ethereum. As an example, he highlighted the advances in real-time ZK testing that projects such as Linea and Gnosis are already developing.
The administrator explained that these technologies have the potential to perform transactions synchronously across different Ethereum-compatible networks. In that scenario, Users can move assets between ecosystems without using bridgesone of the main sources of risk and friction within the sector. Additionally, liquidity that is currently spread across multiple networks could be consolidated into a more integrated environment.
We always knew that zero-knowledge proofs would be important in the ecosystem. We first considered these to be related to layer 2 networks. And we were right.
Joseph Rubin.
Rubin also connected this evolution to his vision for Ethereum. An infrastructure that can support virtually unlimited demand. As he explained, the fragmentation initially introduced by the rollup was a deliberate decision to allow different solutions to explore different technical approaches before converging on a more efficient standard.
For now, this discussion reflects one of the main challenges facing Ethereum today: increasing capacity without sacrificing decentralization or security. While initiatives like Lean Ethereum aim to exceed 10,000 transactions per second on the mainnet, the development of ZK tests aims to solve issues of scalability, interoperability, and privacy simultaneously.
If this strategy comes to fruition over the next few years, Ethereum could move to a model where the separation between the base layer network and the second layer network is virtually invisible to users. More than just technical improvements, the objective is to Reduce fragmentation as ecosystems grow And it provides a unified experience in environments that are increasingly geared toward institutional deployments and large-scale transaction processing.
(Tag translation) Blockchain
