Author: Yue Xiaoyu

Ethereum is becoming ZK-oriented. The ZK prover requires hardware acceleration and has hardware dependencies like Bitcoin mining, so ZK mining may become a new type of PoW.

Ethereum's economic model may eventually become a coexistence of PoS and PoW, forming a new "hybrid consensus" model.

Next, let’s take a closer look at the underlying logic of the above idea.

1. Ethereum is becoming ZK

The basic principle of ZK (zero-knowledge proof) is : One party can prove to another party that a statement is true without providing any additional information.

This is a very promising technology.

ZK technology is currently mainly used for expansion in the blockchain field.

V God has been promoting ZK technology. Due to V God’s willingness and inclination, the Ethereum Foundation has also invested in various ZK projects.

However, the cycle of the infrastructure layer of the ZK project is relatively long, so what we ordinary users can directly perceive at present are various ZK Rollups, that is, ZK series Ethereum Layer2 solution.

Typical representatives are zkSync, Starknet, Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, Linea, etc.

These are all integrated with ZK technology at the execution layer of Ethereum.

Ethereum itself is also gradually becoming ZK-oriented.

(1) ZKization of the consensus layer (such as the Beam Chain proposal): By ZKizing the verification process of the consensus operation, the consensus process can be simplified and accelerated.

(2) Data layer ZKization: only store proofs instead of all transactionsEasy data can significantly reduce on-chain storage requirements.

Through these methods, Ethereum can significantly improve the performance of its network, including transaction processing speed, cost, while maintaining its decentralization and security. and privacy protection.

The introduction of ZK technology is seen as part of the long-term expansion strategy of the Ethereum ecosystem to cope with higher user needs and application complexity.

2. Why does ZK need to be combined with hardware?

The above mentioned many advantages of ZK, but the biggest obstacle ZK currently faces is the performance problem of generating ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proofs).

ZK works by enabling validators to merge multiple transactions into a single, concise proof before submitting the transaction to the main network. Finally, the expansion of the main network was achieved.

But ZK also has limitations, because the process of generating proofs is very resource-consuming in terms of time and energy.

Proof creation is often slowed down by the many complex mathematical operations required, such as exponentiation, reciprocal operations, and bilinear pairing calculations.

Simply relying on software optimization cannot further improve performance, so it needs to be combined with hardware. By using dedicated hardware for acceleration, the proof generation speed can be increased from the original hour level to seconds. level, this would be a huge improvement.

Therefore, ZK has hardware dependencies and requires dedicated chips.

As the application of ZKP technology in privacy computing, blockchain expansion and other fields gradually increases, the generation speed and efficiency of ZKP have become bottlenecks, and the market demand for hardware It is also getting stronger day by day.

3. How to combine PoS and ZK mining?

If ZK hardware acceleration is used, hardware mining can be realized, and a new economic model emerges.

What is ZK mining?

Traditional PoW (Proof of Work) mining relies on solving complex mathematical problems, while ZK hardware mining is the ability to quickly generate ZKP.

Similar to PoW mining, participants can compete for the speed and efficiency of generating ZKP, and the first participant to generate valid proofs is rewarded.

How exactly are PoS and ZK combined?

In a PoS system, validators (i.e. stakers) are responsible for validating transactions and proposing new blocks. ZK proof can be used to prove the correctness of a block or a series of transactions, enhance security and reduce verification costs.

Verifiers, while performing their PoS responsibilities, generate ZKP as additional proof of their work. Validators who successfully generate and submit valid ZKPs can receive additional rewards on top of existing block rewards.

This could be ETH or some form of reward within the network (like a specific token or part of the gas fee).

The main network block reward can be divided into two parts, forming a tiered reward system: one part of the reward is used for traditional PoS verification, and the other part is based on the node Contribution distribution in ZK proof generation.

It can be seen that ZK can be used as an enhancement of PoS verification, and ZK mining can be used as an extension of PoS staking.

In addition to staking ETH to obtain PoS rewards, stakers can also obtain additional rewards by participating in ZK-related work. For example, stakers can run ZK proof generation nodes and provide computing resources to support the application of ZK technology.

But here is just a possibility. If you want to integrate Ethereum’s existing PoS mechanism with ZK technology, you need to modify or expand the current PoS protocol. , to accommodate the ZK-proof role.

And a fair incentive model must be designed to ensure that it does not weaken the incentive effect of PoS and promotes the application of ZK technology.

4. Will ZK mining introduce new positive externalities?

After Ethereum switched from PoW to PoS, the most criticized point is that no externalities are introduced into this "closed" economic system.

PoW has externalities and requires energy and hardware, thus extending the economic activities of the blockchain to the blockOutside the chain, it affects the real world.

In the PoS system, the qualifications to verify blocks are mainly based on the number of tokens held (i.e. pledge), and economic activities are more concentrated within the pledge and network Transactions, rather than involving a wide range of external industries such as mining machine production and power markets like PoW.

ZK acceleration hardware is the same as PoW mining machine, requiring special hardware, but the problem of "ineffective power consumption" will be reduced, because PoW is to solve mathematical problems to compete. Block rights, while ZK mining generates valid proofs to verify transactions, without the need for different nodes to do repetitive and ineffective work.

5. AI and ZK share computing power

Going a step further, a ZK computing power market will emerge, and AI computing power and ZK computing power can even be shared.

An integrated platform that provides comprehensive computing services may appear on the market to support the computing needs of AI and ZK tasks.

Users can handle AI tasks that require high-performance computing and tasks that require ZK proof generation on the same platform.

Integration can also be done at the protocol level: creating smart contracts or protocols so that AI computing power providers can also participate in the generation of ZK proofs, or use ZK technology To verify the results of AI calculations.

Computing power can also be dynamically allocated: computing power resources are dynamically allocated according to task requirements. For example, these resources can be used to generate ZK proofs when the demand for AI tasks is low, and vice versa.

6. The leading player in ZK hardware acceleration

The current leading project on the ZK hardware acceleration track is Cysic.

Cysic focuses on the design and production of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and GPU acceleration solutions to accelerate the ZKP generation process .

Cysic has designed two hardware products:

(1) ZK Air: lightweight ZK device is similar in size to a notebook power adapter and has computing power equivalent to 10 RTX 4090 GPUs, making it suitable for individual users.

(2) ZK Pro: A more powerful device with performance equivalent to 50 RTX 4090 GPUs, designed for large-scale ZK projects such as zkRollup and zkML.

In addition to hardware, Cysic also provides a set of CUDA libraries that support a variety of ZKP systems such as Plonky2, Gnark, Halo2, RapidSnark, etc. These libraries can significantly improve performance, at least 50% compared to open source frameworks.

At the same time, Cysic has an ecosystem, Cysic Network, which is mainly used to integrate and manage community computing resources and connect ZK projects, computing power providers and community verification or, forming a reliable computing network.

Simply put, Cysic Network is a ZK mining pool and SaaS platform.

Currently, Cysic has cooperated with multiple zkRollup projects to demonstrate the practicality and market demand of its products.

In addition to Cysic, there is also a very unique project to mention: Scroll

Unexpectedly, the "rebellious" and "notorious" Scroll is very advanced in ZK hardware acceleration.

Compared with other ZK Rollup projects, Scroll can be said to have taken a different approach, starting with hardware and forming its own competitive barriers by developing dedicated ZK acceleration hardware GUP. This is also Scroll’s biggest competitive advantage.

Looking at this alone, Scroll is indeed a very hard-core project.

But Scroll and Cysic have different positioning: for Scroll, hardware acceleration is part of its overall Layer2 solution; while Cysic is committed to providing the entire ZKP ecosystem Hardware acceleration service.

7. Summary

Finally, summarize the content of this article:

(1) Ethereum is becoming ZK: Ethereum achieves expansion and improves privacy by introducing zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology. ZK technology has been applied in the consensus layer and data layer to improve Network performance.

(2) ZK requires hardware acceleration: Since generating zero-knowledge proofs consumes a lot of computing resources, hardware acceleration (such as ASIC, FPGA) is considered to improve necessary means of efficiency.

(3) Combination of PoS and ZK mining: A new economic model is proposed, in which ZK mining is used as an extension of PoS, and pledgers receive additional rewards by providing ZK computing power. Forming a model in which PoS and PoW coexist.

(4) ZK mining introduces new positive externalities: Compared with PoW, ZK mining may reduce ineffective energy consumption, but it still requires dedicated hardware, bringing incentives to hardware production and technological innovation. p>

(5) AI and ZK computing power sharing: AI and ZK computing tasks may share hardware resources, forming a comprehensive computing service market

(6) Market-leading projects: Cysic and Scroll are leaders in the field of ZK hardware acceleration. The former focuses on providing hardware for the ZK ecosystem, and the latter uses it as part of the Layer2 solution.

Finally, the ZK hardware acceleration track has begun to take shape. With the further ZKization of Ethereum, ZK hardware acceleration will become more important and will even reversely change the economic model of Ethereum. , it is worth our continued attention to this track.