A brief analysis of Succinct SP1: The fastest zkVM

Succinct, which raised 5,500 Perfect Gold, is a top ZK project led by paradigm.

The core product of this top ZK project is SP1, which is also the fastest zkVM at present.

• Leading performance, proving to be up to 28 times faster than other zkVMs and cost as little as a fraction of the cost.

• Support writing ZKP in Rust, reusing existing code bases, and improving development efficiency by 100 times.

• Supports production-grade use cases, has been audited at the top, and has been adopted by major projects such as Polygon and Celestia.

1. What is SP1?

SP1 is a general zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) that allows developers to write plain code in Rust (or any language that supports LLVM compilation) to generate efficient zero-knowledge proofs to verify the correct execution of the program.

Simply put, SP1 allows developers to quickly build verifiable computing applications with cryptographic security in familiar programming languages ​​without delving into complex cryptographic theories.

The core innovation of SP1 is that it greatly reduces the development threshold of zero-knowledge proof while maintaining top-notch performance and flexibility. Making ZKP as simple as writing ordinary software allows blockchain infrastructure (such as Rollup, cross-chain bridges, oracles, etc.) to achieve verifiability through maintainable code.

Zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) can prove the correctness of a certain segment of calculation without revealing any input data. This capability has endless application scenarios in blockchain:

• Capacity expansion: Through Rollup, ZKP can compress large amounts of transactions into one proof, significantly reducing the burden on the main chain.
• Interoperability: ZKP can verify the status of different chains and facilitate cross-chain communication.
• Privacy: ZKP ensures privacy of transactions or status and protects user data.
• Bridges and Oracles: ZKP allows off-chain data or calculations to be verified on-chain without trust. However, the complexity of traditional ZKP development is a "nightmare". It requires a professional cryptography team, years of development cycle and high maintenance costs.

The emergence of SP1 has completely changed this situation.

2. Features of SP1

1. The fastest and most powerful zkVM currently

4-28 times faster than other zkVMs on actual blockchain workloads (such as light client verification, Rollup, etc.), and even comparable to manual optimization dedicated circuitry. Its latest version, SP1 Turbo (v4.0.0), is running on a GPU cluster, and it only takes 40 seconds to verify the Ethereum mainnet block, and the cost is as low as a few cents.

2. Support writing ZKP with Rust

SP1 allows developers to use Rust to write ZKP logic and directly reuse existing Rust ecosystem libraries (such as revm, reth, alloy, etc.).

Developers can directly modify the ready-made blockchain node code to generate ZKP, saving the trouble of writing complex circuits from scratch.

3. Precompilation: Secret Weapons of Performance

SP1 introduces a "precompilation" mechanism, which is highly optimized for common encryption operations (such as keccak, sha256, signature verification, etc.). These precompilations significantly reduce computational overhead, making SP1 more powerful when dealing with complex blockchain workloads. For example, SP1 runs the ZK Tendermint light client, which directly reduces the verification time from 2.2 hours to 4.6 minutes.

4.100% open source, code security

SP1 is 100% open source (MIT/Apache 2.0 license). Its modular architecture allows developers to customize "precompiled" to optimize performance for specific use cases. Unlike traditional closed-source zkVM, SP1 embraces community contributions and attracts developers from teams such as Polygon, Celestia, and Sovereign Labs to improve them together.

Moreover, SP1 has undergone multiple audits by many top ZK security companies and has achieved excellent results in "zero high-risk vulnerabilities" in the public audit competition.

5. Quality Partners

Polygon, Celestia, Avail, Taiko, etc. all used Succinct's SP1 to build ZKP, ensuring more than US$1 billion in on-chain assets (TVL). From Rollup to cross-chain bridges, from oracles to privacy protocols, SP1 is becoming the standard for blockchain infrastructure.

3. Application scenarios of SP1

SP1 implements many use cases in blockchain:

• Rollup: Use SP1 to build ZK Rollup, generate zero-knowledge proof of state transitions, connect to main chains such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, and achieve high throughput and low cost. For example, OP Succinct uses SP1 to provide a production-grade proof engine for OP Stack.
• Cross-chain bridge: SP1 can verify Layer 1 consensus (such as Tendermint or Ethereum light client) and build a safe and efficient cross-chain bridge. For example, SP1 Blobstream verifies the data root of Celestia on Ethereum, while SP1 Vector relays the Merkle root of Avail to Ethereum.
• Interoperability: With SP1, Rollups can achieve rapid certainty and interoperability, helping projects such as Polygon's AggLayer.
• Oracle: SP1 supports off-chain large-scale computing (such as historical state query, on-chain machine learning), and generates on-chain verifiable proofs, greatly reducing Gas costs.
• Privacy: SP1 enables private transactions and status to protect user data security.
• Aggregation: SP1 can aggregate ZKPs of the same type to further reduce on-chain verification costs. Nebra and other projects are exploring this direction.