Have you ever wondered if something as profound as Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) can be written by ordinary developers? One of the highlights of Succinct Labs is here, as they launched SP1 zkVM, whose greatest innovation is allowing you to write programs in familiar Rust (and other high-level languages), directly generating zero-knowledge proofs without the need to learn specialized and complex circuit design.
In the past, if you wanted to create zero-knowledge proofs, you had to explore from mathematics, circuits, and circuit toolchains, which had an intimidatingly high barrier to entry. Now, you only need to write a piece of ordinary logic code and submit it to Succinct's proof network to receive a verifiable proof result. The key behind this is called SP1, a general-purpose zero-knowledge virtual machine that turns programs into provable entities like building blocks.
Additionally, there is something very interesting happening; Succinct has built a globally distributed small computing power market called Prover Network. Simply put, everyone contributes computational power, and whoever can compute the proof the fastest receives a reward. This competitive mechanism is both cheap and decentralized. Just think about it: your Rust program can be verified for correctness by machines around the world, and can also support blockchain, cross-chain bridges, AI verification, etc. It's truly fascinating and practical.
In short, the technical barriers have been significantly lowered, allowing developers to focus more on business rather than the underlying cryptographic mathematics, which is the important significance of Succinct.
