What we’re doing: RISC Zero is building out our real-time proving cluster, and we're inviting others to join in by building their own! As the only high-performance zkVM with a fully open-source GPU cluster, RISC Zero is leading the way towards a decentralized, ZK-ified L1.
How: With a ~$120K investment in hardware. Our performance model projects ~9.25 seconds in e2e proof generation.
Why it matters: The EF’s roadmap puts proof generation inside block proposal. If only million-dollar, closed-source rigs can keep up, Ethereum centralizes overnight. Accessibility is the decentralization guard-rail.
What’s unique: RISC Zero’s zkVM is the only zkVM that lets you run your own GPU cluster and is 100% open-source. You can see the GPU acceleration HERE, and set up your multi-GPU cluster HERE.
Why Real-Time Proving Matters
Ethereum can only adopt zero-knowledge proofs at layer 1 if a block’s validity proof arrives inside the same 12-second slot in which the block is proposed. Real-time proving unlocks:
100-1000x gas limit: Since proofs can verify in constant time, no matter the size of the computation being proven, Ethereum no longer needs a restrictive gas size limit.
Cross-rollup synchronous composability: The major pain point with rollups is managing interoperability between chains. Real-time proving enables atomic composability between rollups.
More Secure light clients: Today, light clients check validator signatures but don’t actually check the validity of the EVM state update. With RTP, light clients can confirm the integrity of the state update, rather than needing to trust the validators.
This is the roadmap the Ethereum Foundation is actively building toward.
Why Speed Alone Isn’t Enough
Generating a block proof in under 12 seconds is the entry ticket to “real-time” status, but the ticket is worthless if only a handful of operators can afford it. To ZK-ify Ethereum L1, generating proofs becomes an essential piece of the block proposal process. If real-time proving requires million-dollar rigs, or proprietary stacks, Ethereum would centralize overnight. This is why accessibility matters just as much as speed.
RISC Zero Will Make RTP Accessible
Hardware you can actually buy: Our profiling shows that our upcoming ~$120K proving cluster will push RISC Zero’s Ethereum proving times to ~9.25s.
Fully open-source: RISC Zero is the only FOSS zkVM. Our circuits, our GPU implementations, and our orchestration software for cluster-based proving are all fully open, making it the only zkVM that lets you run your own cluster.
Speed with accessibility keeps Ethereum open. With RISC Zero, anyone prepared to invest $120K in hardware will be able to run a real-time proving cluster.
Conclusion
Real-time proving is the cornerstone of Ethereum’s ZK future, but it only strengthens the network if many actors can run a prover. RISC Zero will deliver both halves of the requirement:
Speed: Projected ~9.25s e2e proof generation.
Accessibility: RTP on a GPU rig that costs as low as $120K, 100% open-source GPU implementation
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