L1-zkEVM breakout #07, August 12, 2026

Protocol Calls & happenings
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Agenda

  • Project updates
  • Q&A

Slides

Meeting Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 15:00 UTC (60 minutes)

GitHub Issue

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YouTube recording available: https://youtu.be/kQCNGeydelQ

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Meeting Summary:

The L1 zkVM breakout call shared July 2026 updates across several projects. Ignacio highlighted a refreshed EIP 8025 and an update to EIP 7709, which simplified block hash resolution. He also covered zkVM projects, including recent releases, improvements to benchmarks and dashboards, and the publication of a Guest Program Handbook. Marcin provided an update on zkVM guest API standardization, introducing a new proposal for proving cost estimation and announcing his departure from the Ethereum Foundation. Francesco presented work on a recursive guest client, aiming to simplify execution proof syncing. Han discussed benchmarking OpenVM 2.1 and integrating the prover with the benchmarking workflow. Cody reported on compliance testing, the release of a RISC-V fuzzer, the publication of evaluation handbooks, ongoing formal verification work, and updates from the verified zkVM libraries. The conversation ended with a brief Q&A.

Click to expand detailed summary

The meeting began with Ignacio and Ruben having a brief conversation about their locations, with Ignacio in Montevideo and Ruben in Warsaw. They discussed the weather in both cities, with Ignacio mentioning he doesn’t like the windy winter weather in Montevideo. The meeting was set to start with participants joining, and Ignacio prepared to share his screen once everyone was present.

The team discussed updates on several EIPs and zkVM projects. Ignacio highlighted that after weeks of work by Francesco, they have a refreshed version of EIP 8025 with more complete specifications for DCIP and CFI for Hegota. They also merged an update on EIP 7709, which simplifies the stateless input for guest programs by allowing block hash resolution through an SLOAD of the system contract. The team reported three releases (B.0.6.0.1 and 2) based on Glamster and DevDev7, which included removing chain config elements and fixing bugs related to EIP 8282. Upcoming changes include simplifications to the chain config, including the removal of certain elements and the use of Progressive SSE for state code and public keys. A new release (V070) supporting Lamsterdam DevNet 8 is planned for the near future.

Ignacio presented improvements to the search bucket for devnet blocks, which now contains over 50k entries and works better than the previous version. He demonstrated a new Hive UI dashboard featuring two main groups: stateful ELs running execution witness construction fixtures and stateless validators with guest programs and zkVMs. The team plans to analyze failures in more detail after the next devnet from Glamsterdam arrives, with the goal of providing a quick feedback loop for improvements.

Ignacio presented updates on the Guest Program Handbook and tooling improvements for zkVM benchmark workloads. He announced that guest programs will now have full ownership of ELF generation, with AeroGuest providing scripts and tooling to simplify the process. Ignacio also mentioned that the team has simplified their tooling by implementing a single fixture format for running tests, benchmarks, and blocks, and has improved the R2 bucket collector to generate more reliable results with enhanced metadata. He highlighted the integration of these results into existing EVM gas feed models and encouraged teams to have their own CI for testing while AeroGuest provides final checks on imported ELF files.

Marcin provided an update on project 3, ZKVM guest API standardization, reporting ten accepted standards and one new proposal on proving cost estimation. He explained that the new standard aims to measure proving work using a single number “C” to estimate proving time, with cost scopes allowing measurement of specific program regions. Marcin also announced his departure from the Ethereum Foundation at the end of the month, with Cody taking over ownership of the standards, and mentioned that the minimum memory resources standard is still pending profiling data.

Marcin presented on the need for more measurements to validate acceleration standards, particularly comparing against well-optimized software implementations across hundreds of blocks. He discussed a proposed standard for logging functions in zkVM and the potential acceleration of Keccak permutation, though this finer granularity remains an open question. Cody noted that asymptotic linearity assumptions about provers may not be true in general, suggesting modifications to the proposal. The conversation ended with plans to move forward with project number four, and Francesco requested to present next.

Francesco presented his work on defining the recursive execution client, which aims to reduce the need to sync execution payloads for each block by using execution proofs for the head block to attest to the validity of the chain prefix. He outlined the changes made to the specs, including the introduction of an execution proof claim composed of an origin (execution checkpoint) and a head, and explained how this simplifies the protocol by removing complex request-response requirements. Francesco also provided a high-level overview of the guest public input components and mentioned that he has implemented most of the specs, though the CI is not currently green.

The team discussed progress on several projects. Han presented updates on Prover Infrastructure, including benchmark results for OpenVM v2.1 with mainnet and EST blocks, and the integration of zkEVM benchmark workflow metrics into EVM GasFit. Cody provided updates on security testing, including compliance testing for OpenVM 2.1 preview and SP1 proving support, as well as the release of a RISC-V fuzzer grant. Francesco shared information about recursive proofs and guest programs, with Gary requesting access to the related specifications for further review.

Next Steps:

  • ignacio: Cut a new release (V0.7.0) supporting Lamsterdam DevNet 8, probably today or tomorrow.
  • ignacio: Share the links to the slides in the Ethereum PM issue for the call.
  • Francesco: Post the slides for the recursive guest client presentation.
  • Han: Improve the prover and do more benchmarks for all the zkEVMs.
  • Han: Integrate the cost estimator into Aria and create a dashboard for gas performance tracking.
  • cody: Continue working on formally proving RISC-V compliance of ZISC.

Recording Access: