📰 Why did Vitalik suddenly propose a cap on Ethereum proving costs? What is ZKsync going to do with its GPU-powered proving capabilities?

We talked about this just a couple of days ago, and now there’s a new development. Vitalik Buterin has suddenly proposed putting a ceiling on Ethereum’s proving costs after realizing that Layer 2 networks like ZKsync can use GPUs to prove Ethereum blocks at an extraordinary rate. According to monitoring by NS3.AI, ZKsync’s GPUs can handle 99% of blocks in 10 seconds, including witness preparation—clearly not something ordinary users can do.

Why does this news matter? At its core, Layer 2 technology is advancing so quickly that it’s starting to threaten the basic economic model of Ethereum’s mainnet. In the past, Layer 1 proving was a job for CPUs. Now, solutions like ZKsync use GPUs, making proving so fast that block production costs have become highly unpredictable. This is shifting proving power away from ordinary nodes and toward a small number of GPU miners, and Vitalik is concerned this could undermine decentralization. What does it mean? For the first time in Ethereum’s history, someone is starting to consider the “limits of proving power” at the design level.

In terms of market impact, this news is fairly neutral. It may spark some discussion in the short term among those following Ethereum’s economic model, but it’s unlikely to trigger major market sentiment swings directly. BTC and ETH are both posting modest gains at the moment. Vitalik’s proposal is just a technical discussion and has little connection to prices. However, if this GPU-based proving approach is eventually adopted at scale, Ethereum may need to adjust its gas pricing model over the long term to respond.

💡 If GPU proving costs really get out of control, this proposed ceiling could become very important. But honestly, the chances of such an extreme scenario seem relatively low for now, and CPU-based proving on Ethereum is still likely to remain dominant in the short term.

This article is not sponsored by any project. The author does not hold any of the assets mentioned.

⚠️ This is not investment advice. Predictions are for reference only.

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