2026-05-08 –, Masaryk Stage
Ethereum stateless clients need consensus proofs to verify canonical chain membership. zk-proofs compress validator transitions, BLS signatures, and finality rules into one compact proof. Combined with execution proofs, this enables practical stateless verification for wallets, mobile clients, IoT, and other low-resource environments.
Ethereum stateless clients require consensus proofs to verify that a block belongs to the canonical chain. Today, this usually means validating long sequences of sync committee transitions and BLS signatures starting from a trusted checkpoint. This process is data-heavy and impractical, especially for resource-constrained clients.
This session presents how zk-proofs can compress the entire chain of consensus transitions, signature checks, and finality rules into a single compact recursive proof. A client verifies a single proof instead of storing validator sets or block headers, or requesting information about multiple validator set transitions. Combined with execution proofs, this enables fully stateless verification of Ethereum state and execution.
The talk focuses on the proof architecture, trade-offs, and what this model enables for wallets, mobile clients, IoT, and other low-resource environments. It shows how zk-based consensus proofs turn stateless Ethereum from a research goal into a practical client model.
Steffen has more than 20 years of experience in method and software development. In 2017, he started implementing Web3 tech for real-world applications. Now, he is developing the colibri.stateless client – focused on use-cases in IoT, mobile, and web apps.