The Next Decade of Ethereum: Comprehensive Upgrades from Beam Chain to Lean Ethereum

In-depth analysis of the impact of the Lean Roadmap on the Ethereum ecosystem.

Written by: ZHIXIONG PAN

On its tenth anniversary (i.e., by the end of July 2025), the Ethereum Foundation 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 Justin Drake, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. Its main concept is to significantly simplify protocol design and introduce quantum-resistant cryptographic technologies, achieving extreme performance improvements for the Ethereum network (millions of transactions per second) as well as quantum-resistant security.

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

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 regarded as Eth 3.0 at the time), and later officially renamed "Lean Consensus." This project team focuses on a brand-new design for the Ethereum consensus layer (Beacon Chain).

The main goals of Lean Consensus include:

• Ultra-fast finality: Reducing block time to about 4 seconds, achieving finality in approximately 12 seconds.
• Enhanced decentralization: Lowering the minimum staking amount for validators from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, significantly reducing the threshold for consensus participation.
• Post-quantum security: Introducing hash-based signature technology to ensure the consensus layer can withstand future quantum computing threats.
• On-chain lightweight verification: Using SNARK technology for efficient chain state verification, allowing any node to easily verify the integrity of the blockchain.
• Network optimization: Improving network communication efficiency through new P2P protocols (such as Gossipsub v2.0).
• Aggregate proof technology: Adopting hash aggregate signatures to reduce network communication burden 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 Team

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

• Hash signature algorithms: Replacing the current elliptic curve signature algorithm with quantum-resistant hash signature schemes.
• Data commitment optimization: Transitioning from the current KZG polynomial commitment to hash commitment to enhance on-chain data security.
• 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 the correctness of implementation and protocol design.

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

3. Lean Data and Lean Execution

In addition to the two core project teams mentioned above, Lean Ethereum also has two important project groups that do not operate as independent teams: 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 dedicated to a complete overhaul of 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 full transition.
• Hardware acceleration support: Exploring zero-knowledge proof acceleration solutions based on dedicated ASIC or FPGA hardware.

The progress of Lean Data and Lean Execution is currently synchronized mainly 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 that can sustainably operate for decades or even a century, supporting a massive decentralized application ecosystem in the future.