The blockchain industry has been calling for a 'scalability revolution' for many years, but the reality has always been stark: while Ethereum Layer2 is fast, it is hindered by 'slow proof uploads and high costs'; cross-chain interoperability seems lively but actually relies on third-party trust, with asset security like walking on a tightrope; zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) are clearly a tool for breaking the deadlock, but due to the 'high development barrier', they have become the exclusive toy of a few technical teams. Until Succinct Labs emerged with SP1 zkVM (zero-knowledge virtual machine) - it did not follow the old path of 'speculative concepts', but rather practically transformed ZKP into an infrastructure that 'developers can handle, projects can land, and can be shared across all chains', even being referred to as 'the underlying engine of trusted computing in blockchain' within the industry. Today, we will analyze how it makes 'blockchain fast, secure, and user-friendly' from five dimensions: technical dimensionality reduction, scenario landing, community barriers, capital betting, and ecological closed loops.
Technical dimensionality reduction: SP1 zkVM transforms ZKP development from 'cryptographic challenges' to 'writing code as usual'.
The core value of ZKP is 'not exposing data while proving the correctness of results', but the biggest hurdle in the past was the 'technical closed loop' - developers not only needed to master underlying cryptography like elliptic curves and polynomial commitments, but also adapt to different blockchain architectures. Developing a ZKP solution could take six months or more. Succinct's SP1 zkVM has directly broken this 'closed loop':
• Lowering the threshold to a civilian level: Dual buffs of Rust + RISC-V: Developers no longer need to wade through hundreds of pages of cryptographic papers; they can write programs in familiar Rust language and generate ZKP with one click; more crucially, it perfectly supports the RISC-V architecture - meaning DeFi protocols and NFT markets already developed based on RISC-V in ecosystems like Ethereum, OP Stack, Solana can directly integrate ZKP features without rewriting a line of code. For example, a certain DeFi project originally planned to develop ZKP privacy settlement features in 6 months, but after using SP1, it went live in just 1.5 months, increasing development efficiency by 4 times.
• Performance skyrocketing to practical levels: FPGA hardware acceleration crushes CPU: Another 'dead end' for ZKP is 'slow proof generation and high costs' - in the past, generating ZKP for 1000 transactions using a CPU took over 20 minutes and could cost dozens of dollars, making it unaffordable for small and medium projects. Succinct's collaboration with ZAN (AntChain OpenLabs) introduced FPGA chips for hardware acceleration, directly increasing proof generation speed by 20 times, completing proofs of the same scale within a minute, and reducing costs to 1/10 of the original. Now, even small and medium projects with daily active users in the tens of thousands can easily use ZKP for privacy protection or efficiency optimization.
• Scenarios closely aligned with essential needs: Recursive proofs save Layer2: The 'recursive proof' supported by SP1 is akin to a 'lifeline' for Layer2 - simply put, it packages 100 or 1000 scattered small proofs into 1 large proof, so that verification only requires checking this one proof. This is crucial for Rollups: Originally, Rollups had to transmit dozens of MB of proof data to the Ethereum mainnet; now, the size can be compressed by 90%, saving more than half the gas fees, and transaction confirmation speeds have been reduced from over ten minutes to within 2 minutes, completely resolving the contradiction of 'Layer2 being fast on-chain but slow on the mainnet'.
Scene landing: Not just Ethereum, even Bitcoin can rely on it for 'secure cross-chain'
Many people view Succinct as 'Ethereum's ZKP tool', but its ambition goes far beyond serving a single chain - the goal is to enable all blockchains, even Bitcoin without smart contracts, to utilize 'trusted computing'.
• Ethereum's 'performance emergency kit': Some in the industry say 'SP1 is Ethereum's performance emergency kit', and it's no exaggeration. It not only provides fault proof for Layer2 Rollups (such as OP Succinct Lite in partnership with 0xFacet, reducing the transaction error rate of Rollups to nearly zero), but also introduces SP1-CC (ZK co-processor) - directly breaking through the functional limitations of Ethereum's EVM, allowing EVM chains to run complex ZKP computations. For example, in the past, when EVM chains performed cross-pool settlement, they either exposed user position data or had slow computation speeds. Now, using SP1-CC, data can be hidden while increasing the settlement speed by 3 times, allowing DeFi projects to finally avoid choosing between 'privacy' and 'efficiency'.
• Bitcoin's 'trust-minimized bridge': This is Succinct's most disruptive breakthrough. In the past, interoperability between Bitcoin and smart contract chains like Ethereum and BNB chain could only rely on centralized exchanges or custodians. The 2022 FTX incident was a painful lesson - once a platform runs away, users' BTC is gone. Now, in collaboration with Fiamma, Succinct uses the BitVM2+SP1 solution to achieve BTC cross-chain without any third-party trust: generating ZKP through SP1 to prove asset ownership on the Bitcoin chain, without exposing user private keys or transaction data, while allowing smart contract chains to directly recognize BTC ownership, filling the gap of 'secure interoperability between Bitcoin and smart contract chains'.
• 130+ chain's 'trusted passport': Relying on the LayerZero protocol, Succinct's $PROVE token has already achieved native cross-chain between Ethereum and BNB chain, and in the future will cover over 130 chains connected by LayerZero. This is not simply 'token cross-chain', but uses ZKP for foundational verification - for example, the results of smart contract calls on Chain A, after generating proof through SP1, can be directly recognized by Chain B without recalculating, truly realizing 'trusted computing across chains'. For instance, a certain cross-chain DeFi protocol using this solution has reduced cross-chain transaction verification time from 1 hour to 5 minutes, and no longer relies on centralized nodes of cross-chain bridges.
Community barrier: 217,000 followers do not engage in 'traffic frenzy', with 20,000 test spots reserved for 'true players'.
Currently, many blockchain projects rely on 'forwarding lotteries and airdropping coins' to boost user numbers, resulting in a community full of 'freeloaders', with very few actually contributing. Succinct goes against this trend; the community logic is simple: 'Quality > Quantity', allocating all resources to core participants who can help the project grow.
• Screening mechanism: Filtering out 'freeloaders' and retaining 'tech enthusiasts': As of August 2025, Succinct's X account (@Succinct abs) has 217,000 followers, covering the core crowd in the crypto space, but the Discord testnet only opened about 20,000 spots. Want to secure a spot? You have to complete a series of technical tasks: such as testing for functional vulnerabilities in SP1, submitting code optimization suggestions, contributing open source code to SP1 on GitHub (like fixing a specific RISC-V adaptation bug). The final selected users have over 80% with Rust development experience or blockchain testing backgrounds, with almost no 'pure freeloaders'.
• Incentive logic: Airdrops do not reward 'bystanders', but only 'doers': The first airdrop accounts for 5% of the total $PROVE token supply, but the distribution rules are very 'hardcore' - only given to three types of people: users who submit valid bug feedback in the testnet (with detailed logs), open-source developers who contribute over 100 lines of code to SP1, and ecological project teams in deep collaboration. There are no benefits for 'sharing' or 'registering for rewards', directly binding incentives to 'project contributions' to make the community a true 'force for technical iteration' rather than a 'platform for token speculation'.
• Ecological kernel: KOL + developer dual support: In Succinct's community, there are influential figures like Laura Shin (a top crypto journalist who has extensively reported on Ethereum's merge) and Fred Ehrsam (co-founder of Coinbase, one of the pioneers of Web3), alongside a large number of Rust developers maintaining SP1 code on GitHub - as of August 2025, SP1's GitHub repository has over 2000 stars and more than 150 contributors, forming a virtuous cycle of 'KOLs expanding influence and developers filling technical gaps', a community barrier that many peers cannot buy.
Capital betting: Behind the $55 million financing is a long-term bet from top-tier institutions on 'ZKP infrastructure'.
When it comes to Succinct's financing, it's less about the amount and more about 'who the investors are' - securing investment from Paradigm and co-investment from Eigenlayer's founder essentially signifies that the industry recognizes its 'scarce value as a ZKP infrastructure', rather than a short-term speculative opportunity.
• Investors: All are 'tech-focused', with no 'quick-money players': The $55 million financing (seed round + A round) was led by Paradigm - this fund is known in the crypto space for 'only investing in projects with long-term technical barriers' and never touching 'speculative coins' with no substance. Previous investments in Ethereum, Uniswap, and others have become foundational infrastructure in the industry; participants also include Robot Ventures (focused on Web3 infrastructure investment, having invested in Celestia and Eigenlayer), ZK Validator (a top fund in the ZKP vertical, only investing in core projects in the ZKP space), as well as industry leaders like Eigenlayer founder Sreeram Kannan and Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal. These investors are not here to 'make quick money', but are betting that 'ZKP will become the next generation of core infrastructure in blockchain', with Succinct being a 'potential leader' in this space.
• Token economy: Not engaging in 'team cashing out', but paving the way for the ecosystem: The total supply of $PROVE is 1 billion, and the distribution mechanism fully serves the long-term development of the project: 25% invested in the ecosystem and R&D (ensuring SP1 can continue to iterate, such as supporting more blockchains and optimizing proof speeds), 25% for the public and incentives (attracting new users without excessive issuance to avoid token inflation), 29.5% for core contributors (with a 3-4 year locking period to ensure the team will not run away midway), and 10.5% for investors (with a 1-2 year locking period to balance capital returns with ecosystem stability). There are no pitfalls of 'overly high team proportions', nor are there risks of 'immediate unlocks leading to market crashes', making it a token economy that 'infrastructure projects should have'.
Ecological closed loop: Every collaboration addresses a shortcoming in the 'ZKP infrastructure'.
Succinct's collaborations are not 'merely binding for numbers', but precisely focus on its shortcomings - performance, security, scenarios, with each collaboration piecing together a 'fully usable ZKP closed loop' across all chains.
• Filling performance gaps: FPGA acceleration makes ZKP 'accessible': In collaboration with ZAN (AntChain OpenLabs), the longstanding issues of 'high cost and slow speed' of ZKP have been directly addressed. In the past, only large projects like Optimism and Arbitrum could afford to use CPU to generate proofs; now, with FPGA acceleration, costs have dropped by 90% and speeds increased by 20 times, allowing small and medium projects to easily integrate ZKP, such as a certain Solana ecosystem NFT project that achieved the functionality of 'hiding holder identities' using SP1, increasing user numbers by 30% in half a month.
• Filling security gaps: Formal verification closes 'code vulnerabilities': In collaboration with Nethermind (the core Ethereum client developer responsible for maintaining critical code on the Ethereum mainnet), formal verification is performed on SP1 - simply put, this uses mathematical logic to prove that SP1's code has no vulnerabilities, eliminating the risk of 'proof errors leading to user asset losses'. This is the most critical security endorsement for ZKP projects; it's worth noting that in 2023, a certain ZKP project faced millions of dollars in assets unable to be verified due to code vulnerabilities, while Succinct preemptively blocked such risks through formal verification.
• Filling scenario gaps: From Layer2 to Bitcoin, covering all chain demands: In collaboration with 0xFacet, providing ZK fault proof for Stage 2 Rollups (making Layer2 safer so users no longer worry about 'transaction rollbacks'); collaborating with Fiamma to create a trust-minimized bridge for Bitcoin (allowing BTC to cross-chain safely without relying on centralized platforms); collaborating with LayerZero to enable $PROVE cross-chain (connecting 130+ chains, becoming the 'token medium' of the ZKP ecosystem); even supporting Celestia's Blobstream (data availability solution) to verify the integrity of cross-chain data with SP1 - now, Succinct is no longer just a project serving Ethereum, but a 'ZKP infrastructure hub' that covers mainstream blockchains.
Summary: What Succinct aims to do is establish a 'trusted computing foundation' for blockchain.
The value of Succinct Labs has never been 'another ZKP project', but rather transforming ZKP from 'lab technology' to 'infrastructure usable across all chains' - it solves the problem of 'developers not knowing how to use' ZKP with SP1 zkVM, addresses the 'high cost and slow speed' problem with FPGA acceleration, and resolves the 'few scenarios and difficulty in cross-chain' issue through ecological cooperation.
Although it still faces competition in the ZKP space (such as Scroll's ZK-EVM and StarkWare's StarkNet) and has to solve the technical challenges of multi-chain adaptation (like the special architecture of the Bitcoin chain), from the four points of 'technical lowering of entry barriers + high-quality community + long-term capital betting + ecological gap-filling', it is very likely to become a 'key variable' in promoting the large-scale landing of ZKP technology. In the future, when blockchain is no longer trapped in the contradiction of 'scalability' and 'security', when cross-chain interoperability no longer relies on third-party trust, and when ordinary developers can easily create 'privacy + efficiency' applications, there will likely be a shadow of Succinct behind it - after all, its mission is to 'prove the software of the world', not just 'make a ZKP tool'. @Succinct #SuccinctLabs $PROVE
