zkEVM Intern

zkEVM Intern

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The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies. Our mission is to do what is best for Ethereum’s long-term success. Our role is to allocate resources to critical projects, to be a valued voice within the Ethereum ecosystem, and to advocate for Ethereum to the outside world.

As part of our mission to advance blockchain systems, interns will contribute to bleeding edge research that spans computer science, distributed systems, crypto-economics, and mechanism design. This program offers a unique opportunity to work closely with Ethereum Foundation researchers, their collaborators, and other contributors across the ecosystem, tackling both foundational and applied research challenges. Interns will also have opportunities to share their findings through ethresear.ch, academic publications, or conference submissions helping shape the future of Ethereum.

Interns can choose to work remotely but are encouraged to work out of an EF office (likely Berlin, Germany). In addition, interns will be invited for an in-person cohort meetup in the summer.

The duration of the internship is 12 weeks during summer 2026.

Bringing zkEVMs to L1 is a multi-faceted effort. Our work is organized into three core workstreams, with parallel progress on client implementations.

1. Real-Time Proving: The core challenge is generating a proof for a full Ethereum block within the 12-second slot time. Our work focuses on prover performance, parallelization, and hardware acceleration to meet this latency target.

2. Client & Protocol Integration: We are designing how zkEVMs will integrate into Ethereum’s execution and consensus layers. This involves standardizing interfaces and defining the protocol changes for clients to request and verify proofs.

3. Economic Incentives & Security: A robust protocol requires sound incentives. We are researching models for prover markets, censorship resistance, and aligning builder and prover incentives to ensure network liveness and security.

Resources:

https://zkevm.ethereum.foundation/

More on the EF Protocol cluster: https://protocol.ethereum.foundation/

Skills

• Basics of applied cryptography with interest in ZK, exposure to finite fields/elliptic curves is a plus
• Understanding computational vs. cryptographic assumptions
• Assembly/bytecode literacy
• Experience with differential testing, fuzzing, or formal verification
OR
• An understanding of the Ethereum protocol and its architecture
• Previous contributions to any codebase

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research in areas relevant to Ethereum and decentralized technologies.
• Collaborate with Ethereum Foundation researchers and contributors to address pressing technical and conceptual challenges.
• Contribute to public-facing materials, such as blog posts, white papers, and technical reports, to share research outcomes.
• Engage with the broader research community through discussions, seminars, and collaborations.

Qualifications

• Current university enrollment studying a relevant field such as computer science, cryptography, mathematics, or economics. Very recent graduates (~1 year) may also be considered.
• Demonstrated interest in Ethereum, blockchains, and decentralized technologies.

$8,000 – $8,000 a month

This application closes on Dec 1st, 2025. Applicants will receive decisions by January 30th, 2026.