Ethereum3.0 is coming! What is Beam Chain? Revitalize the old chain with 3 key points

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake proposed the final design of Ethereum at today's Devcon conference, with the core being a large-scale redesign of the Ethereum consensus layer. He named the design proposal and fork 'Beam'. So, what kind of vision does Beam Chain carry? How is its technical architecture and implementation plan unfolded?

BEAM Vision

Why is there a need for a large-scale redesign of the consensus layer? Justin Drake believes that the current beacon chain is outdated, as its specifications were frozen five years ago. In addition, there have been many breakthroughs in the industry in recent years, such as MEV mitigation, SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge), zKVMs (Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machines), etc. Therefore, the redesign of the consensus layer is particularly urgent.

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First, it should be pointed out that since the launch of Beacon Chain in 2020, Ethereum has welcomed an important fork upgrade every year. From the addition of the Sync Committee in 2021, to the completion of the merge in 2022, to the stake withdrawal support in 2023, and the proto-Danksharding in 2024, every step has witnessed the growth and transformation of Ethereum. In 2025, Ethereum will implement the Electra fork, including the implementation of EIP-7251 (MaxEB). In the following years, Ethereum will also undergo some progressive forks.

However, after these progressive forks, Justin Drake believes that we may face an unprecedented challenge - the Beam fork. This is a 'quantum leap' at the consensus layer that can batch multiple upgrades into a single fork.

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It is worth mentioning that Beam focuses specifically on the consensus layer and excludes the blob and execution layers (including EVM). This is because the opportunities to modify the blob and execution layers are quite limited. On the other hand, the consensus layer is not directly used by applications, so there is a greater chance for design and changes.

In the Beam Chain Consensus roadmap, there are three categories: Block production, stake, and cryptography. In terms of Block production, anti-censorship is achieved by introducing inclusion lists to decouple validators from the Block production process. There are also ideas like implementing auctions, and perhaps shortening the current 12-second slots time.

In terms of stake, researchers currently widely believe that optimizing the current issuance curve has the potential to improve the overall health of the Ether network. In addition, reducing the stake required for validators and achieving faster finality are also key areas of research. In the field of cryptography, the focus is mainly on chain abstraction, quantum security, and strong randomness.

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Beam Chain technology layer

Justin Drake believes that after PoW and PoS, we may be entering the era of Zero-Knowledge Proof in Ethereum Consensus. In the ZK era, SNARKs will become an essential technology. The entire Beam Chain, and even the entire Consensus layer, can undergo SNARKification. This is precisely the time for zKVM to shine.

It is worth noting that the part that needs to undergo SNARK processing is mainly the state transition function, which is the core of the consensus client. All the infrastructure surrounding the state transition function, such as the network, syncing, cache optimization, or fork choice rules, do not need to undergo SNARK processing. In the end, the state transition function is only a subset of the entire system.

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Another place where SNARKS are heavily used in the Beam Chain is aggregate signatures - using hash functions to achieve post-quantum aggregatable signatures. Justin Drake explains that thousands of signatures can be aggregated and compressed into a single proof, combining to form a hash-based post-quantum aggregatable scheme, which can also be aggregated multiple times.

In addition, Ethereum will continue to use existing infrastructure, including libp2p, SimpleSerialiZe, PySpec, and Protocol Guild.

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BEAM Chain Roadmap

Justin Drake has formulated a detailed plan for the launch of Beam Chain, which will initiate the relevant specification development process starting from 2025, begin construction in 2026, and commence related testing in 2027 to ensure that Beam Chain meets production standards and can be securely deployed to Mainnet. From the roadmap below, the Mainnet deployment may go live after 2029 and 2030.

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Justin Drake plans to start writing the executable specification next, which will ultimately be streamlined to about 1,000 lines of Python code.

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In addition, two client development teams (Zeam team from India and Lambda team from South America) have expressed interest in the development of the Beam Chain client.

Disclaimer: The market is risky, and investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are applicable to their specific situation. Investment based on this is at your own risk.

This article is authorized for reprint from: "Foresight News"

Original author: Karen, Foresight News

『Ethereum 3.0 is coming! What is Beam Chain? Reviving the old chain with 3 key elements』 This article was first published in the 'encryption city'.