ZkSync launches new STARK-based proof system with focus on mass usability

The latest proof system promises better throughput than the current rate of 100 TPS and lowers long-term costs.

ZkSync Era, Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solution, has launched a new STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) proof system called Boojum, which promises to work on general purpose CPUs (GPU) mainstream.

ZkSync Era is one of the few Ethereum scaling protocols using zero-knowledge rollups (zk-rollups) to increase capacity and speed while reducing fees. ZK rollups mainly use two important proof systems: zk-STARK and Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK).

The new Boojum proof system is based on a Rust-based cryptographic library from zkSync that implements an improved version of the arithmetic circuits for zkSync Era and its ZK developer stack. More importantly, it allows Boojum demonstrators to be run on everyday personal computers instead of powerful hardware and servers.

The upgrade can run on computers with as little as 16 gigabytes (GB) of GPU RAM, ensuring that regular users can participate in network activity. For context, zkSync currently runs on a cluster of 100 GPUs, each with 80 GB of RAM.

Before the launch of Boojum, zkSync mainly depended on zk-SNARKs, which were capable but comparatively less transparent than zk-STARK-based systems. The previous system processed around 100 transactions per second, while Boojum promises to offer higher processing capabilities.

Related: Privacy and Scale Drive Use Cases for Zero-Knowledge Technology

In the final stage of the implementation, the new proof will wrap the STARK proofs with a non-transparent pairing-based SNARK. This will essentially be a slightly improved version of the current SNARK-based proof...