zkSync Announces Major Cryptographic Upgrade to Proof System
zkSync, a blockchain network focused on digital self-ownership, has revealed a significant upgrade to its proof system. The upgrade involves transitioning to a new STARK-based proof system called Boojum, which offers improved proving performance and reduced hardware requirements for decentralization.
Main Breakdowns:
– Transitioning to Boojum: zkSync is adopting a new proof system called Boojum, which is a Rust-based arithmetization and constraint library that implements the upgraded version of the ZK circuits for zkSync Era and the ZK Stack.
– Advantages of PLONK-style arithmetization: PLONK, the underlying zero-knowledge proof system of Boojum, offers advantages such as transparency, universality, and upgradability.
– Performance improvement: The move to a STARK-based proof system provides a significant performance improvement, ensuring low latency for finality and support for increased activity levels.
– Reduced hardware requirements: Boojum’s GPU provers require just 16 GB of RAM, reducing the hardware cost for running zkSync.
– Smooth transition and open-sourcing: zkSync is running the new proof system alongside the existing one in a testing phase and has open-sourced the Boojum codebase.
Hot Take:
The upgrade to Boojum marks an important milestone for zkSync and the broader ZK Stack-based systems. It improves scalability, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness, making digital self-ownership more accessible to a wider audience. With further audits and security reviews, zkSync is on its way to a user-powered and decentralized proof generation future.