Ethereum Foundation Launches evm.fast Challenge to Bound Block Verification Execution Steps

The Ethereum Foundation has launched 'evm.fast', a public technical challenge seeking to prove a finite certified upper bound on the step count required to validate stateless Ethereum blocks. Evaluated using a 64-bit RISC-V software model via the Flapjack compiler and Lean 4 proof assistant, the current baseline bound stands at infinity. Eligible inputs must declare a gas limit of 200 million or lower and fit inside a 128 MiB program window. The effort supports Ethereum's zero-knowledge roadmap, where block proving latency has already dropped from roughly 16 minutes to under 10 seconds for 99% of blocks.