Like many, I've been following the ongoing discussions about how to make Ethereum faster and more efficient. Currently, when a new block of transactions is added to Ethereum, it takes about 13 minutes to be fully confirmed. This delay happens because every validator on the network needs to double-check all the transactions to ensure everything is correct and secure.

But what if we could speed this up significantly? Dankrad Feist, a researcher, has proposed a way to achieve "validity proving Ethereum at 1-block latency". This means that the confirmation time could potentially be reduced to just the time it takes to create a new block, which is around 12 seconds.   

The key to this lies in Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology. Imagine if, instead of every validator re-running all the transactions, the system could generate a special kind of proof that instantly shows everything was executed correctly. That's essentially what ZK proofs allow. A computer can run all the calculations and then create a small, easily verifiable proof that confirms the results without revealing any of the sensitive details.

If this technology can be implemented efficiently enough to happen within the Ethereum block time, it could dramatically increase the number of transactions Ethereum can handle per second (TPS) . Some experts believe this could lead to a 100x to 1000x increase in Ethereum's capacity.   

Succinct with their zkVM called SP1, are already working on making ZK proofs faster and more accessible . The idea of "real-time proving" – generating these proofs almost instantly – is becoming a real possibility.   

This move towards validity proving at 1-block latency could be a game-changer for Ethereum, potentially making it a much more scalable and efficient platform for the future. It's an exciting development that could reshape how we think about the base layer of Ethereum.