Ethereum Consensus Layer Innovation: Five Transformations Brought by Beam Chain

Ethereum started with PoW (Proof of Work) and successfully transitioned to PoS (Proof of Stake) in 2021. However, Ethereum core researchers believe that despite the initial good performance of the Beacon Chain, it has accumulated some technical debt in recent years, and its design has not fully utilized cutting-edge technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs. Therefore, the consensus layer of Ethereum urgently needs a major upgrade.

At the recent Developer Conference, the Ethereum research team proposed a major initiative called "Beam Chain", aimed at fundamentally reforming Ethereum's consensus layer. This is a crucial component of Ethereum's long-term development plan, with the goal of significantly enhancing the network's scalability and performance by leveraging the current breakthroughs in zero-knowledge cryptography, without launching a new network. Undoubtedly, this will become one of the most critical upgrades for Ethereum in the next 3-5 years.

It is worth noting that Beam Chain is not a new blockchain in the literal sense, but a new infrastructure built within the Ethereum mainnet. It will significantly improve the transaction speed, security, and efficiency of the L1 mainnet. Some views misunderstand Beam Chain as Ethereum 3.0, while in fact, it only addresses improvements at the consensus layer and does not involve changes to the data layer or execution layer.

Beam Chain will bring five core transformations to Ethereum:

1. Faster block confirmation: Achieve 4 seconds slot time and single slot finality
2. Maintain Decentralization: Sustain or improve the current level of decentralization.
3. Lower the staking threshold: Reduce the ETH staking requirement from 32 ETH to 1 ETH
4. Protect ordinary users: Eliminate MEV based on blockchain reorganization
5. Looking to the Future: Empowering the Ethereum Network with Quantum Resistance

The Upgrade Ideas and Principles of Beam Chain

1. Increase block production

The Beam Chain plans to triple the block production to enhance Ethereum's transaction processing capabilities. At the same time, it introduces the FOCIL (Fork Choice Mandatory Inclusion List) mechanism to strengthen censorship resistance, ensuring that transactions are not easily excluded by malicious actors.

Validators will isolate through auctions, which not only ensures stronger performance and decentralization but also protects more users from MEV. In addition, Ethereum will achieve single-slot finality and a 4-second block time, significantly improving transaction confirmation speed and network efficiency.

This means that the exchange will no longer need to wait for multiple block confirmations, as a single block will suffice for confirmation in the future.

2. Optimize Staking Mechanism

Beam Chain will adjust the reward issuance model for validators to increase staking returns. More importantly, the staking requirement for independent validators will be reduced from the current 32 ETH to 1 ETH, significantly lowering the participation threshold and making independent staking more accessible.

This groundbreaking advancement is attributed to the application of zero-knowledge technology, which enables Ethereum to increase speed while accommodating more nodes to participate in consensus without significantly raising hardware requirements, effectively breaking through the impossible triangle of staking.

3. Enhance security

Beam Chain will introduce post-quantum cryptography to ensure that the network can withstand potential threats from future quantum computing, becoming a pioneer in quantum resistance among mainstream blockchains.

Zero-knowledge proof technologies (such as zkSNARK and zkVM) will be deeply integrated with Ethereum to further enhance privacy, scalability, and security. Ethereum will also utilize the RISC-V architecture to achieve SNARKification of the blockchain, improving the efficiency and scalability of proof generation.

In short, this series of upgrades can be summarized as: achieving comprehensive ZK of Ethereum.

In addition, Beam Chain will introduce a more robust randomness mechanism to ensure the fairness of key network processes such as validator selection, while minimizing MEV risks like sandwich attacks by enhancing resistance to censorship.

4. How It Works

Since the design of Ethereum's current consensus layer (Beacon Chain) was determined, cryptographers have made significant breakthroughs in the field of SNARKs. By SNARKifying Ethereum's state transition function, a 4-second slot time and single-slot finality can be achieved.

This improvement not only significantly shortens the waiting time for L1 transactions and enhances user experience, but also reduces the impact of MEV by eliminating remote block reorganization strategies, while alleviating the technical debt of the Consensus layer.

More importantly, SNARKification will enable the Ethereum network to have quantum resistance, laying the foundation for the future development of blockchain.

Beam Chain will promote the upgrade of Ethereum in the following ways:

• Accelerate processing speed using sharding technology: Split data into smaller shards for parallel processing, reducing transaction bottlenecks.
• Implementing anti-quantum computing security measures: Adopting cutting-edge cryptographic technologies to ensure that network security is not threatened by future quantum computing.
• Integration with Ethereum's long-term roadmap: Beam Chain as an important component of Ethereum's expansion and security enhancement plan for the next 5 years.

5. Important significance

Beam Chain is crucial for enhancing Ethereum's ability to handle increasingly complex decentralized applications. It will significantly improve the network's scalability, reduce transaction costs, and enhance overall security, enabling Ethereum to support more users and complex applications.

The SNARK-based proof system allows stakers with ordinary hardware configurations to also achieve the aforementioned performance advantages. When the staking threshold is lowered to 1 ETH, the degree of decentralization among Ethereum stakers will further increase, and the network performance will also see significant improvements.

These improvements are expected to significantly enhance its L1 capabilities while maintaining the high degree of decentralization of Ethereum. At the same time, the introduction of long-term solutions such as quantum resistance will ensure that Ethereum remains secure, efficient, and adaptable for decades to come, laying the groundwork for future innovations without the need for disruptive redesign.

Although the implementation of Beam Chain seems far off, with deployment on the mainnet expected by 2027, this cautious timeline is necessary for decentralized development of open-source software to ensure security and stability.

Ethereum continues to make long-term plans, which is exciting news for the entire blockchain industry. This also provides a solid foundation for us to maintain an optimistic attitude towards Ethereum in the current active market environment.