Written by: Yue Xiaoyu
Web3Caff founder Gootor raised a very important point. Here are some further thoughts:
Ethereum is becoming ZK-based, and the ZK prover requires hardware acceleration, just like Bitcoin mining has hardware dependence, 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 assumptions.
1. Ethereum is becoming ZK-based
The basic principle of ZK (zero-knowledge proof) is that one party can prove to another party that a statement is true without providing any other information.
This is a very promising technology.
ZK technology is currently mainly used for capacity expansion in the blockchain field.
Vitalik Buterin has been promoting ZK technology. Due to Vitalik Buterin's wishes and inclinations, the Ethereum Foundation has also invested in various ZK projects.
However, the infrastructure layer of the ZK project has a relatively long cycle, so what ordinary users can directly perceive at present is various ZK Rollups, that is, the Ethereum Layer2 solution of the ZK system.
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-based.
Consensus layer ZK-ization (such as the Beam Chain proposal): By ZK-izing the verification process of consensus operations, the consensus process can be simplified and accelerated.
ZK-ization of the data layer: Only storing proofs instead of all transaction data can significantly reduce on-chain storage requirements.
In this way, Ethereum is able to significantly improve the performance of its network, including transaction processing speed, cost, and privacy protection, while maintaining its decentralization and security.
The introduction of ZK technology is seen as part of the Ethereum ecosystem’s long-term scaling strategy to cope with higher user demand 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 issue of generating ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proofs).
ZK’s operating mechanism is to enable validators to merge multiple transactions into a single, concise proof, and then submit the transaction to the main network, ultimately achieving the expansion of the main network.
But ZK also has limitations because the process of generating proofs is very resource-intensive in terms of time and energy.
The creation of proofs is often slowed down by the need for many complex mathematical operations, such as exponentiation, inversions, and bilinear pairing calculations.
Software optimization alone 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 hours to seconds, which will be a huge improvement.
Therefore, ZK is hardware dependent and requires dedicated chips.
As the application of ZKP technology in privacy computing, blockchain expansion and other fields gradually increases, the speed and efficiency of ZKP generation have become bottlenecks, and the market demand for hardware has become increasingly strong.
3. How to combine PoS and ZK mining?
If ZK hardware acceleration is adopted, hardware mining can be realized, which will lead to the emergence of a new economic model.
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 participant who first generates a valid proof will receive a reward.
How do PoS and ZK combine specifically?
In the PoS system, validators (i.e. stakers) are responsible for verifying transactions and proposing new blocks. ZK proofs can be used to prove the correctness of a block or a series of transactions, enhancing security and reducing verification costs.
While performing their PoS duties, validators generate ZKP as an additional proof of their work. Validators who successfully generate and submit valid ZKPs can receive additional rewards in addition to existing block rewards.
This could be ETH or some form of reward internal to the network (like a specific token or a portion of the gas fee).
The mainnet block reward can be divided into two parts, forming a tiered reward system: one part of the reward is used for traditional PoS validation, and the other part is distributed according to the node's contribution in ZK proof generation.
From this we can see 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.
However, this is just a possibility. If ZK technology is to be integrated into Ethereum’s existing PoS mechanism, the current PoS protocol needs to be modified or expanded to accommodate the role of ZK proof.
Moreover, a fair incentive model must be designed to ensure that the incentive effect of PoS is not weakened while promoting the application of ZK technology.
4. Will ZK mining introduce new positive externalities?
After Ethereum switched from PoW to PoS, the most criticized point was that no externalities were introduced into this "closed" economic system.
PoW has externalities and requires energy and hardware, thus extending the economic activities of the blockchain to outside the blockchain and affecting the real world.
In the PoS system, the eligibility to verify blocks is mainly based on the number of tokens held (i.e., staked), and economic activities are more concentrated on staking and transactions within the network, rather than involving external industries such as extensive mining machine production and electricity markets like PoW.
ZK acceleration hardware, like PoW mining machines, requires dedicated hardware, but the problem of "ineffective power consumption" will be reduced because PoW is about solving math problems to compete for the right to produce blocks, while ZK mining is about generating 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 further, a ZK computing power market will emerge, and even AI computing power and ZK computing power can be shared.
There may be integrated platforms on the market that provide comprehensive computing services to support the computing needs of AI and ZK tasks.
Users can process 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: create 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, when AI task requirements are low, these resources can be used to generate ZK proofs, and vice versa.
6. ZK hardware acceleration leader
Currently, the leading project in the ZK hardware acceleration track is Cysic.
Cysic focuses on designing and producing 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:
ZK Air: A lightweight ZK device that is the size of a laptop power adapter and has computing power equivalent to 10 RTX 4090 GPUs, suitable for individual users.
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, connect ZK project parties, computing power providers and community validators, and form a reliable computing power 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 another very unique project to mention: Scroll
Unexpectedly, the "despised" and "notorious" Scroll is at the forefront of ZK hardware acceleration.
Compared with other ZK Rollup projects, Scroll can be said to have taken a different approach, starting from hardware and forming its own competitive barrier by developing dedicated ZK acceleration hardware GUP. This is also Scroll's biggest differentiated competitive advantage.
Just looking at this point, Scroll is indeed a very hardcore project.
However, Scroll and Cysic have different positioning: for Scroll, hardware acceleration is part of its overall Layer2 solution; while Cysic is committed to providing hardware acceleration services for the entire ZKP ecosystem.
7. Summary
Finally, let’s summarize the content of this article:
Ethereum is becoming ZK-ized: Ethereum achieves expansion and improves privacy by introducing zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology, and has applied ZK technology at the consensus layer and data layer to improve network performance.
ZK requires hardware acceleration: Since generating zero-knowledge proofs consumes a lot of computing resources, hardware acceleration (such as ASIC, FPGA) is seen as a necessary means to improve efficiency.
Combination of PoS and ZK mining: A new economic model is proposed, which uses ZK mining as an extension of PoS. Pledgers receive additional rewards by providing ZK computing power, thus forming a coexistence model of PoS and PoW.
ZK mining introduces new positive externalities: Compared with PoW, ZK mining may reduce ineffective energy consumption, but it still requires dedicated hardware, bringing incentives for hardware production and technological innovation.
AI and ZK computing power sharing: AI and ZK computing tasks may share hardware resources to form a comprehensive computing service market.
Market-leading projects: Cysic and Scroll are leaders in the field of ZK hardware acceleration, with the former focusing on providing hardware for the ZK ecosystem and the latter using it as part of the Layer2 solution.
Finally, the ZK hardware acceleration track has begun to emerge. With the further ZKization of Ethereum, ZK hardware acceleration will become more important and may even reversely change the economic model of Ethereum. It is worth our continued attention to this track.
