lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake

youtube.com/watch?v=Dad2UonQ9Ag&feature=yo…

In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt (x.com/nico_mnbl) sits down with Justin Drake (x.com/drakefjustin) from the Ethereum Foundation (ethereum.foundation) to kick off a miniseries on lean Ethereum, a bold vision to rethink Ethereum’s consensus, data, and execution layers. Justin outlines how post-quantum cryptography, faster finality, and enshrined zkEVMs fit together into a cohesive redesign. At the heart of it is leanVM, an ultra-minimal zkVM built to aggregate hash-based signatures and recursively verify proofs, potentially turning post-quantum migration into a scalability win.

They also explore formal verification efforts, the shift from conjectured to provable proximity gaps, Poseidon2 as a hash candidate, and how this work could set a post-quantum standard not just for Ethereum, but for other blockchains as well.

This episode sets the stage for deeper dives in coming episodes.
Related Links

• Ethproofs (ethproofs.org)
• lean Ethereum (blog.ethereum.org/2025/07/31/lean-ethereum)
• Lean Consensus R&D Progress (leanroadmap.org)
• Poseidon2: A Faster Version of the Poseidon Hash Function (eprint.iacr.org/2023/323.pdf)
• github.com/leanEthereum/leanSpec
• github.com/leanEthereum/leanMultisig

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Read transcript (github.com/ZeroKnowledgefm/episode-transcripts…)