COINOTAG News reports that the Ethereum Foundation is pursuing a 2026 pivot: security over velocity. The group intends to require a minimum of 128-bit cryptographic strength, aligning with mainstream accreditation levels. This shift emphasizes formal verification and risk management, signaling that the network’s scalability path must coexist with robust defenses. In practice, security criteria will shape zkEVM development, with institutional adoption increasingly contingent on a credible security baseline.
While zkEVM has yielded performance gains, several approaches depend on assumptions that lack full external validation, presenting an on-chain forgery risk. The Foundation plans advanced security audits and evaluation tools, and zkEVM must reach 128-bit security by 2026. The shift may temper some scalability efforts, but it aims to bolster resilience and credibility, attracting institutional capital and high-value applications by prioritizing security first, then optimized performance.