Vitalik Buterin Shuts Down the ZK Speed Race, Pivots to Security Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced that the pursuit of raw speed in zero-knowledge proofs is no longer the priority. With fast processing now achieved, he is calling on developers to concentrate on formal verification to ensure the security and integrity of the Ethereum network. Vitalik Buterin has declared the era of speed competition in zero-knowledge (ZK) Ethereum development over. In a recent post on X, he congratulated the ZKsync Airbender team for achieving 100k gas per second, stating that this milestone effectively ends the race for faster transaction speeds. He urged the focus of ZK-EVM teams to shift entirely to security, emphasizing three specific areas: verifying the mathematical equivalence of proofs to the Ethereum spec, establishing a hard cap on prover costs relative to block gas, and ensuring the intrinsic security of the proof system. This direction is crucial as Ethereum increasingly relies on ZK proofs for block validation, where a fast but flawed proof could compromise the entire network.While the market shows immediate reaction to price swings, Buterin's message sets a long-term trajectory for the reliability and stability of the Ethereum infrastructure.