Recently, many people have been paying attention to PROVE, but the underlying project is called Succinct. Its goal is straightforward—transforming zero-knowledge proof networks into protocols that anyone can participate in, much like how home computers could mine Bitcoin in the past. The difference is that instead of calculating hashes, this involves validating and packaging transactions on the blockchain through proofs, making transactions faster, cheaper, and more open.
The core advantage of PROVE lies in SP1. This is a high-performance zkVM developed by Succinct: completely open-source, supporting GPU acceleration and efficient recursion, allowing proof speeds to be an order of magnitude higher than most zkVMs, while significantly reducing costs. It is also EVM-compatible, supports Rust programming, and comes with ready-made templates, enabling developers to quickly build zk applications without extensive effort.
More importantly, SP1 has already been practically applied, not just remaining in whitepapers. Ecosystems such as Polygon, Celestia, and Avail are utilizing it, completing over 5 million proofs and demonstrating stable real-world results.
On the capital front, Succinct is backed by top-tier institutions. It has completed $55 million in financing: $12 million in seed funding and $43 million in Series A, both led by Paradigm, with follow-on investments from Robot Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Geometry, ZK Validator, and participation from co-founders of Polygon and EigenLayer.
In terms of token distribution, the team holds 29.46%, ecosystem R&D 25%, future incentives 23%, investors 10.54%, treasury 10%, and there is also a 2% Binance airdrop. The overall design considers long-term development while leaving space for the community.
In summary: If Bitcoin is decentralized computing power and Ethereum is decentralized staking, then PROVE aims to bring about decentralized verification.
It ensures that zero-knowledge proofs are no longer the privilege of a few institutions but an open network where ordinary users can contribute computing power and gain rewards.
If this path can be successfully navigated, it would be significant. The blockchain will become lighter, faster, and cheaper, while bringing ordinary people back to the infrastructure layer, recreating the early crypto atmosphere where 'home computers could also participate.'
