From Beam Chain to Lean Ethereum: An In-depth Analysis of the Impact of the Lean Roadmap on the Ethereum Ecosystem

Author: Zhixiong Pan

Original Title: The Next Decade of Ethereum: Comprehensive Upgrade from Beam Chain to Lean Ethereum

Ethereum Foundation, on its tenth anniversary (i.e., at the end of July 2025), officially launched a brand-new technical blueprint called "Lean Ethereum." The core goal of this blueprint is to build a more streamlined, secure, and efficient Ethereum base layer, providing a solid technical foundation for Ethereum's development over the next decade and beyond.

What is Lean Ethereum?

Lean Ethereum was proposed by core researcher Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation. Its main concept is to greatly simplify protocol design and introduce post-quantum cryptographic technologies, achieving extreme performance improvements for the Ethereum network (millions of transactions per second) as well as post-quantum security.

The core of the Lean Ethereum blueprint is mainly reflected in the following two key project groups.

1. Lean Consensus (formerly Beam Chain)

Lean Consensus is the core and foundation of Lean Ethereum. Initially named "Beam Chain," it was publicly introduced during Devcon 2024 (even considered Eth 3.0 at the time), and later officially renamed to "Lean Consensus." This project group focuses on a brand-new design for Ethereum's consensus layer (Beacon Chain).

The main goals of Lean Consensus include:

• Ultra-fast confirmation: Reducing block time to about 4 seconds, achieving finality in about 12 seconds.

• Enhanced decentralization: Lowering the minimum staking amount for validators from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, greatly reducing the threshold for consensus participation.

• Post-quantum security: Introducing hash-based signature technology to ensure the consensus layer can resist future threats from quantum computing.

• On-chain lightweight verification: Using SNARK technology for efficient verification of chain state, allowing any node to easily verify the integrity of the blockchain.

• Network optimization: Optimizing network communication efficiency through new P2P protocols (such as Gossipsub v2.0).

• Aggregate proof technology: Using hash aggregate signatures to reduce network communication load and improve verification efficiency.

Lean Consensus is currently the flagship project of Lean Ethereum, with dedicated public meetings (Lean Calls) held every few weeks for in-depth technical updates and discussions. Core team members include Justin Drake, Dmitry Khovratovich, Will Corcoran, and others.

2. PQ (Post-Quantum Cryptography) Project Group

The PQ project group focuses on upgrading cryptography, aiming to ensure Ethereum remains secure and reliable in the future era of quantum computers. The main research directions of the PQ project group are:

• Hash signature algorithms: Replacing the current elliptic curve signature algorithms with hash signature schemes resistant to quantum attacks.

• Data commitment optimization: Transitioning from the current KZG polynomial commitments to hash commitments to enhance data security on-chain.

• Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP): Developing efficient SNARK/STARK circuits suitable for hash algorithms for state verification.

• Formal verification: Conducting rigorous formal verification of new cryptographic schemes to ensure correctness in implementation and protocol design.

Core members of the PQ project group include Will Corcoran, Antonio Sanso, George Kadianakis, and others, jointly promoted by internal researchers of the Ethereum Foundation and external academic experts.

3. Lean Data and Lean Execution

In addition to the two core project groups mentioned above, Lean Ethereum also has two important but not independently operated project groups: Lean Data and Lean Execution.

Lean Data

Lean Data focuses on improving the performance of the data availability layer, for example, by significantly increasing the data throughput capacity on the Ethereum chain through the following means:

• PeerDAS v1 and v2: Implementing distributed data availability sampling to greatly increase data throughput.

• BPO (Blob Parameter Only) mechanism: Automatically adjusting data storage parameters to gradually increase on-chain data capacity.

• FullDAS and mempool sharding: Further optimizing data broadcasting and storage efficiency.

The ultimate goal of Lean Data is to achieve Teragas-level data transmission to support the massive Layer2 application demands of the future.

Lean Execution (also known as EVM 2.0)

Lean Execution is committed to completely reconstructing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), aiming to create a streamlined, efficient, and zero-knowledge-proof-friendly new execution environment. The main research directions include:

• zkVM based on RISC-V architecture: Streamlining the instruction set and reducing proof overhead.

• Real-time zero-knowledge proofs: Improving proof generation speed to enable real-time verification.

• Compatibility and migration path: Gradually introducing the new zkVM to run in parallel with the existing EVM, eventually achieving a complete transition.

• Hardware acceleration support: Exploring zero-knowledge proof acceleration solutions based on dedicated ASIC or FPGA hardware.

The latest progress of Lean Data and Lean Execution is mainly synchronized through the Ethereum Foundation's official blog, protocol updates, and the Ethereum developer community (Ethereum Magicians).

The Long-term Significance of Lean Ethereum

The Lean Ethereum plan is a major strategic layout by the Ethereum Foundation for the development roadmap of the next decade. Lean Consensus, as the core pillar, ensures the security and scalability of the chain through more efficient protocol design; the PQ project builds a defense line against quantum computing threats; Lean Data and Lean Execution respectively guarantee improvements in on-chain data throughput and smart contract execution performance.

This streamlined, efficient, and secure new architecture aims to make the Ethereum mainnet a global trust infrastructure sustainable for decades or even centuries, supporting the massive decentralized application ecosystem of the future.

How to Participate?

The Ethereum Foundation widely invites community members, researchers, and developers to participate through the Lean Ethereum official website, GitHub repository, public Lean Calls, and the Ethereum Magicians community.