REAL-TIME BLOCK PROVING USING AIRBENDER

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

zkSync's Airbender prover achieved real-time Ethereum L1 block proof generation using just two consumer-grade RTX 5090 GPUs, prompting Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake to suggest the breakthrough could enable "gigagas L1" with significantly higher gas limits pushing L2 fees toward zero. Vitalik Buterin praised the "huge milestone" but cautioned about worst-case performance gaps where proving times can differ by 60x between average and worst-case blocks, recommending repricing gas for expensive operations like RSA verification rather than hardware arms races. The achievement was showcased at Ethproofs Day in Buenos Aires and marks a shift in Ethereum's scaling trajectory as consumer-grade proving becomes feasible compared to historical data center resource requirements.