Vitalik Buterin
@vitalik.eth
110 Following
335062 Followers
70 replies
142 recasts
1134 reactions
A fun math aside, on the idea of splitting a large zk proving workload between multiple provers.
Suppose you have N provers, and you have a proving workload that you split into N parts (so, one part per prover). You require provers to pre-register, but registration is open-access.
Suppose you have a constant fault rate (eg. 1/5 of registered provers fail). Provers expect to complete in one round (eg. 3s). If one prover fails, other provers have to come in and re-prove that load. How many rounds does it take for the entire workload to get proven?
Answer: log*(N)
(yes, that's the iterated-log function)
Why:
In the first round, you go from N unproven workloads to N/5 unproven workloads
In the second round, each remaining workload gets assigned 5 provers, so per-workload failure rate becomes 1 in 5^5. So you go to N / 5 / 5^5 unproven workloads
In the third round, each remaining workload gets assigned ~5^5 provers, so failure rate is 1 in 5^(5^5). So you go to N / 5 / 5^5 / 5^(5^5) unproven workloads 19 replies
35 recasts
284 reactions
43 replies
31 recasts
352 reactions
24 replies
102 recasts
533 reactions
29 replies
172 recasts
689 reactions
32 replies
178 recasts
884 reactions
17 replies
71 recasts
384 reactions
7 replies
50 recasts
249 reactions
24 replies
51 recasts
406 reactions
14 replies
100 recasts
457 reactions
6 replies
19 recasts
178 reactions
2 replies
4 recasts
64 reactions
17 replies
112 recasts
432 reactions
4 replies
13 recasts
87 reactions
And my personal focuses for 2025:
1. Ethereum, particularly:
(i) L1 long-term roadmap (eg. single-slot finality, long-term VM, statelessness, security / resilience / decentralization)
(ii) full-stack security, open source and privacy: ensuring Ethereum is usable in a way that is highly secure, free of centralized intermediaries and privacy-friendly, incl higher up the stack (apps, wallets...)
2. Big-picture d/acc (see https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/01/05/dacc2.html ):
* comms tools, info and social layer, mechanism design eg. governance, pubgoods/open source funding
* cryptography, OS, hardware, physical infra, bio defense
Meanwhile areas that are important but where I am relatively less involved (and others excel):
* @gakonst @ansgar.eth @dankrad and others are taking on practicals of short-term scaling (eg. 10x the L1 gaslimit within 2026)
* p2p, block construction, other research areas
* @hww @tkstanczak are leading many EF matters
* proven app layer categories (eg. defi, payments/savings) 23 replies
62 recasts
282 reactions
30 replies
218 recasts
806 reactions
37 replies
120 recasts
662 reactions
19 replies
90 recasts
409 reactions
10 replies
43 recasts
265 reactions
16 replies
93 recasts
379 reactions