If you’ve been following crypto, you’ve probably heard a lot about zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). They’re powerful tools that let you prove something is true without revealing all the details. In practice, they unlock privacy, security, and scaling. But here’s the catch: until recently, using ZK was painfully complicated. You needed deep cryptography knowledge, custom circuits, and expensive hardware just to get started.
@Succinct Labs is trying to change that. Founded in 2022, their mission is bold but clear: make proofs as easy to use as normal software. Instead of months of cryptography work, developers should be able to write everyday code — and get a proof for it with minimal effort.
To get there, Succinct built two key things:
1. SP1, a general-purpose zkVM (zero-knowledge virtual machine).
2. The Prover Network, a decentralized marketplace for proof generation.
Together, these tools make ZK not just possible, but practical for anyone.
SP1: Proofs for Everyday Code
Most zero-knowledge systems today are specialized. They’re like custom chips built for one job. SP1 is different. It’s more like a CPU that can prove it ran your code correctly.
Here’s what makes it special:
Write in normal languages like Rust or C++, @Succinct Labscompile to RISC-V, and SP1 will generate a proof. No need to learn cryptography or design circuits.
Fast and scalable thanks to sharding, GPU acceleration, and recursion. For example, SP1 can prove an Ethereum block in under 40 seconds.
Optimized precompiles for heavy math like SHA, Keccak, RSA, and elliptic curves. This makes crypto-heavy workloads run much faster.
Fully open-source and audited, so developers can trust and extend it.
Over time, SP1 has gotten faster and smarter. The latest upgrade, SP1 Hypercube, introduced a new proof system that cut proving times by up to 5x. That means some proofs that used to take minutes now finish in seconds.
The Prover Network: Proofs-as-a-Service
Even with SP1, generating proofs can require serious hardware. That’s why Succinct built the Prover Network.
Think of it like Uber for proofs:
Applications post proof requests.
Provers (people or companies with GPUs, FPGAs, or ASICs) bid to generate the proof.
The fastest and cheapest prover wins, creates the proof, and gets paid.
This setup has a lot of benefits:
Cheap: Costs drop because many provers compete. Some transactions cost just a few cents to prove.
Reliable: With thousands of provers online, the network runs at 99.9%+ uptime.
Open: Anyone with the right hardware can join, stake tokens, and earn rewards.
Secure: Provers must put up collateral, so if they cheat or fail, they get penalized.
Instead of every rollup or app building its own proving cluster, they can now just tap into this shared network.
Real Use Cases Already Happening
Succinct isn’t just theory. Their tech is already live in the wild:
Rollups: Polygon, Mantle, and Avail are using SP1 to cut costs and speed up withdrawals. Some have dropped wait times from a week to under an hour.
Bridges: Across Bridge is integrating SP1 for safer, ZK-native cross-chain transfers.
Data Layers: Celestia is exploring Succinct proofs for verifiable data availability.
Hardware Providers: Companies like ZAN and Cysic are joining the network with GPU clusters and even custom chips designed to accelerate proofs.
Why Succinct is Different
Plenty of ZK projects exist — zkSync, StarkWare, Polygon zkEVM — but Succinct stands out because:
$PROVE It’s general-purpose. SP1 isn’t just for Ethereum; it can prove any RISC-V program.
It’s developer-friendly. You use normal code, not cryptographic DSLs.
It’s open-source. Nothing is hidden behind closed doors.
It’s decentralized. Proofs aren’t controlled by one company — anyone can provide them.
Succinct isn’t trying to be just another rollup. They want to be the infrastructure layer that everyone else builds on.
The Bigger Picture
$PROVE Succinct already secures over $4 billion in value across 35+ projects and has processed millions of proofs. They’re backed by leading investors, but more importantly, they’re proving (literally) that zero-knowledge can work at scale.
The long-term vision? A world where every digital action can be verified — not just on blockchains, but in apps, AI systems, and beyond. Proofs become the default, invisible layer that guarantees trust.
As Succinct’s founders like to say: “We’re building the rails for a verifiable internet.”
And if they succeed, the future of computing won’t just be fast or scalable — it will be provably correct.
