According to PANews on April 30, The Block reported that the zkEVM project Kakarot, supported by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and StarkWare, announced the completion of a fully functional implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and plans to provide real-time proofs for Ethereum Layer 1 blocks through the STARK proof system by the end of 2025. The project is built using the Cairo language developed by StarkWare, aiming to provide a zero-knowledge proof solution independent of mainstream technology stacks.
Clement Walter, co-founder of Kakarot, stated that the current system can generate block proofs in 8 seconds, faster than Ethereum's 12-second block interval. The project achieves a differentiated technology stack through the Cairo language, avoiding reliance on mainstream solutions (such as the Plonky3 prover and the RISC-V instruction set). Ethereum's 2028 roadmap relies on ZK proofs, while Kakarot claims to have built the 'first credible alternative' for generating zero-knowledge proofs for Ethereum blocks compared to mainstream stacks. This progress is announced as the Ethereum community discusses the RISC-V architecture alternative proposed by Vitalik Buterin. The Kakarot team responded that although it is reasonable to adopt a ZK-friendly instruction set for the execution layer, there is no need to rush into transitioning to RISC-V.
