Ethereum Researcher Says Sepolia Block Proofs Take 6 to 7 Seconds

Ethereum Foundation research engineer Tau Lepton is testing EIP-8025 execution proofs on Sepolia, where producing a proof for one block takes about 6 to 7 seconds — faster than Ethereum’s 12-second block interval.

The setup runs OpenVM across 16 RTX 5090 graphics cards, with eight assigned to each of the ethrex and reth execution clients. That pace lets the prover finish before the network produces another block, the real-time threshold being tested.

More than 36,000 proofs have been generated so far. Tau said the team plans to rotate among different provers and client programs over the next several days to several weeks.

Execution proofs use zero-knowledge cryptography to let validators check a block without replaying its transactions. The approach shifts validation from replaying transactions to checking the cryptographic proof. Tau cautioned that the work remains experimental: validators should not rely on the proofs for fork choice or proof voting, and they must continue running an execution client.