Arbitrum Advances ZK Settlement, L1 Withdrawals Could Shrink from Days to Hours

Arbitrum's development team stated it is introducing zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to the Arbitrum platform to achieve a multi-proof settlement model. Through ZK proofs, the settlement time of Arbitrum blocks to Ethereum L1 is expected to shrink from days to hours, enhancing capital efficiency for users, bridges, and protocols while maintaining security via the multi-proof mechanism. The capability targets Arbitrum One and dedicated chains based on the Arbitrum platform, with Offchain Labs to submit an upgrade proposal to the DAO subsequently. Current progress includes: running the same state transition function as optimistic execution within the SP1 zkVM, generating ZK proofs for real mainnet blocks; Stylus WASM contracts can be proven alongside Solidity contracts; the team launched a standalone Rust verifier, making ZK proofs a first-class mode alongside standard verification; the BoLD settlement protocol now supports accepting ZK proofs endorsed by a fast confirmation committee, with the original dispute game retained as a fallback path, forming a multi-proof architecture where ZK proofs, proof committees, and fraud proofs work in tandem. The team noted it is continuously reducing proof costs and gradually integrating relevant code into the Nitro main production path. Next steps focus on further proof optimization, transitioning to Reth-based execution, completing L1 message inbox proofs, and integrating ZK settlement capabilities into node configurations for chains to enable as needed.