Ethereum may be edging closer to processing 10,000 transactions per second, thanks to a breakthrough in scaling technology called Pico Prism.
On Wednesday, Ethereum scaling firm Brevis unveiled a cutting-edge zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) designed for real-time proving.
This innovation enables Ethereum blocks to be proven almost instantly using consumer-grade gaming GPUs rather than costly supercomputers.
“Brevis has achieved real-time proving of Ethereum L1 using consumer-grade hardware,” the company announced, noting that the setup relied on 64 Nvidia RTX 5090 GPUs, currently the top-tier model for gaming.
In a September test, Pico Prism reached 99.6% real-time proving within 12 seconds. Real-time proving (RTP) refers to the generation of a cryptographic proof confirming a block’s correct execution faster than new blocks are produced.
“This marks a major step toward scaling Ethereum by 100x and a future where you can validate the chain from a phone.”
Brevis plans to reach 99% real-time proving using fewer than 16 RTX 5090 GPUs “within the next few months,” according to its roadmap.
A major step toward Ethereum scaling
This milestone marks a turning point for Ethereum scalability. For the first time, proving — traditionally a highly computational process — has caught up with block production speeds using affordable consumer hardware. This makes lightweight validation a practical reality.
At present, every Ethereum validator must re-execute each transaction to verify blocks, a process that demands costly hardware and creates a core performance bottleneck, Brevis noted.
“Real-time proving breaks this model. One prover generates a proof, and everyone else verifies it in milliseconds.”
The path to 10,000 TPS
According to Ethereum’s long-term roadmap, validators will eventually verify zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) instead of re-executing every transaction. This shift could allow Ethereum’s base layer to process up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS).
“At this pace — roughly a 3x increase per year — Ethereum L1 could reach 10,000 TPS by April 2029,” said Ryan Sean Adams of Bankless.
The upcoming Fusaka upgrade, expected in December, is set to further streamline real-time proving, noted Justin Drake, a Bitcoin security researcher.
“EIP-7825 limits gas usage per transaction, enabling more parallel proving through subblocks,” Drake explained. “By the end of the year, multiple teams will be proving every L1 EVM block on a 16-GPU cluster consuming under 10 kW.”
A “phone-as-a-node” future
The Ethereum Foundation called the development “a major step toward Ethereum’s future,” hinting at a world where lightweight, low-power devices — even smartphones — could act as network nodes.
“ZK technology like Pico Prism will enable Ethereum to scale to meet global demand, while still remaining trustworthy and decentralized.”
“The phone-as-a-node future just became real,” said tech entrepreneur Mike Warner.
According to Ryan Sean Adams, Ethereum is evolving into a zk-chain, where layer 1 will power global DeFi with large blocks and 10,000 TPS, and nodes light enough to run on a smartphone, while layer 2 handles everything else.
This vision represents what many consider the holy grail of blockchain — achieving massive scalability without compromising decentralization or security.
