The recent proposal to overhaul Ethereum's $400 billion blockchain has been welcomed by the teams behind leading layer-2 networks, zkSync and Polygon, who believe it will enhance their auxiliary networks rather than making them redundant. The proposal, known as the Beam Chain, aims to incorporate zero-knowledge cryptography into Ethereum's protocol, which is expected to improve transaction speed and scalability.
According to Alex Gluchowski, CEO of Matter Labs, the changes will focus on the consensus layer and will not affect the execution layer, which is where layer-2s operate. The upgrade is expected to shorten block times, reduce transaction costs, and introduce single-slot finality, making it easier for layer-2s to settle on Ethereum. Brendan Farmer, co-founder of Polygon, believes the Beam Chain will make rollups work better, with faster finality, ZK verifiability, and improved interoperability between different ecosystems. The proposed changes are seen as a vindication of zero-knowledge proofs as a scaling method, with Gluchowski stating that 'using ZK really emphasizes the fact that ZK is the end game.'