Chainfeeds Summary:
Jolt is an open-source RISC-V zkVM that combines high performance, security, and developer friendliness.
Article source:
https://x.com/a16zcrypto/status/2021348447656476841
Article Author:
a16z
Opinion:
a16z: Jolt is fully open source. Open source is the ultimate amplifier, enabling more people to audit, reuse, fix, and innovate. The reason a16z crypto established a research lab is precisely to bridge the gap between academic theory and industrial engineering. Many fundamental cryptographic research projects cannot be completed through short-term commercial incentives; the structure of venture capital allows it to undertake long-term, reverse, and systematic investments. Jolt is a reverse consensus bet: its core idea returns to the sum-check interactive proof paradigm, directly challenging the mainstream SNARK architecture of the past 30 years. The development of cryptographic proof systems has gone through static proofs (ancient Greek formal logic, NP), interactive proofs IP (1985), probabilistic verifiable proofs PCP (1990), interactive + PCP → concise proofs (Kilian), and Fiat-Shamir → non-interactive SNARKs (Micali). However, there is a key misconception in the entire evolutionary path: the industry twice de-interactiveized, only to ultimately add interaction back using Fiat-Shamir. If interaction is ultimately to be eliminated, why not start directly from interactive proofs + sum-checks and skip PCP? This is precisely Jolt's core insight: skipping PCP and building SNARKs directly based on sum-checking. Such an architectural leap is extremely rare in the decades-long history of SNARK research. Jolt's greatest innovation is maximizing the use of the repetitive structure of the CPU execution process. All CPUs follow the pattern: fetch → decode → execute. Jolt found this structure to be ideal for batch verification + memory checking + sum-checking, achieving extremely high efficiency, extremely low complexity, and extremely strong versatility. In contrast, other zkVM implementations rely heavily on pre-compiles (similar to dedicated acceleration modules in ASICs), which, while fast, are complex, prone to bugs, dependent on cryptographic experts, and severely degrade the development experience. Jolt completely abandons pre-compiles, truly democratizing the engineering of zkVM. In Jolt, each instruction can be described with only about 10 lines of Rust code, eliminating the need to design complex circuits.
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