Ethereum Researchers Face Deadline to Close zkEVM Security Gap

Ethereum researchers are racing to close a security gap in the zkEVM (zero-knowledge proof) system before its December deadline. The challenge, hosted on better.codes, measures the distance between what has been proved safe and what is still considered unsafe.

The current leaderboard shows a 52.14-bit interval, with a lower certificate of 63.99 bits and an upper certificate of 116.13 bits. To reach the 128-bit target, researchers must submit successful soundness or attack certificates.

The Ethereum Foundation's roadmap calls for 128-bit provable security by December 2025, but due to unforeseen challenges, the deadline has been moved to early December 2026. The current progress page shows no completion marker for the full package and remains silent on work tracked elsewhere.