Introducing Kailua: A hybrid architecture that gives OP chains 1-hour finality without the higher cost of constant ZK proving. 2/ Today, the rollup landscape offers two different approaches:
→ Optimistic rollups: Low costs but 7-day finality
→ ZK rollups: Fast finality but high proving costs

Kailua introduces an innovative third option, combining the strengths of both.

Boundless is getting hardware acceleration.

RISC Zero and @FabricCrypto are bringing real-time ZK to @boundless_xyz, powered by the first custom-designed verifiable processing unit (VPU).

Here's how we are speedrunning ZK ↓ 2/ Fabric's VPU is the first processor that is purpose-built for cryptography.

Its custom instruction set optimizes fundamental cryptographic operations, and remains flexible to existing and frontier algorithms.

Introducing Steel 1.0: A production-ready smart contract prover bringing boundless runtime to EVM apps.

Steel moves smart contract execution offchain, bypassing gas limits while preserving onchain security.

Enhance your existing Solidity contracts ↓ 2/ Steel uses execution proofs to eliminate blockchain re-execution.

Any computation—no matter how complex—becomes a compact proof which is quickly verified onchain.

Result? Boundless runtime, massive cost reductions.

Introducing Boundless: The Verifiable Compute Layer

Unlimited execution. Global composability. On-demand scaling.

For every developer. On any chain. 2/ Boundless leverages ZK to enable verifiable off-chain execution for any chain.

This means any application can be built off-chain while inheriting blockchain security.

No block/txn/execution limits. Only boundless possibilities.

We're thrilled to announce a collaboration with @celestiaorg to build Blobstream Zero, a new-generation zkVM-based Blobstream bridge. 🟡

Blobstream Zero will bridge Celestia's permissionless DA layer to Ethereum, Optimism, Bitcoin, Solana, and more... 2/ Blobstream Zero opens up a new class of modular apps: ZK Coprocessors.

Dapps on Ethereum, Optimism, and Solana can run highly functional and data-rich ZK programs, powered by RISC Zero and Celestia, while maintaining composability.

Introducing zkVM 1.0: The Future of Verifiable Computation🌐

Today, we're excited to launch the world's first and most performant, production-ready zkVM.

zkVM 1.0 makes zero-knowledge proofs scalable, accessible, and cost-effective for any chain. 2/ Unrivaled Performance 🔥

zkVM 1.0 offers cost-effective proving with performance that significantly outperforms competitors.

Our tests show zkVM 1.0 is significantly less expensive and consistently faster across various workloads.

Full details ↓
risczero.com/blog/beating-m…

Introducing Steel: our Alloy-based view call proof library designed to revolutionize dapp scalability directly on Ethereum L1 and beyond. 🟡

Why Steel is a game-changer for EVM developers and onchain protocols ↓ With Steel, RISC Zero’s ZK Coprocessor gains access to Ethereum's full state.

Tests surpassing 100K SLOADs (>210M gas) show Steel can cut $1000s in fees with one proof.

Steel enables Layer 0.5 scaling, sidestepping Ethereum's block & txn size limits, unlocking new use cases.

Introducing Zeth: A Fully Open Source Type 0 zkEVM 🚀

Built on the RISC Zero zkVM and Bonsai, Zeth is a performant, upgradable, and scalable way for developers to ZK prove any Ethereum block ushering in the next generation of ZK and EVM

🧵 1/8 Learn More Below! Democratizing zkEVM 🧑‍💻

Zeth makes it easier to build ZK rollups, zkEVMs, light clients, and bridges by providing an open source solution to generate ZK Proofs of EVM and Ethereum blocks

Projects can use Zeth to bring ZK to their protocols in weeks instead of years

🧵 2/8

Next generation Optimistic Rollups are here! 🚀

@RiscZero and @LayerN_ have joined forces to develop the first ZK Fraud Proof system, combining Optimistic Rollups with ZK Proofs, opening the door for more performant, reliable, and secure Blockchains.

🧵 [1/6] Optimistic Rollups and Zero Knowledge Proofs don’t need to fight! ❤️

While @LayerN_ is a modular Optimistic Rollup, its Fraud Proof system has been completely overhauled and replaced with Succinct ZK Proofs, which attest to invalid state transitions.

[2/6]

A huge thank you to participants in @__zkhack__ 's first IRL hackathon! Take a look here at the winning projects (and learn more about what we're looking for at hackathons): risczero.com/blog/zkhack Thank you to everyone who participated and submitted to the RISC Zero prize category! Here are some of the projects that we loved:

This week’s RISC Zero Study Club is focused on FRI!

For real-time FRI learning, join us Wednesday 10am PST/5PM UTC at zoom.us/j/99200763534

If you'll be at #ZKSummit, you can also catch @Paul_Gafni's workshop on this topic.

For async learning, read on!
[1/] The FRI protocol, first published in 2018, is the backbone 🦴of all implementations of STARKs – and some newer SNARKs.
risczero.com/docs/reference…
[2/]

Over the past week, we've released two important pieces to support our zkVM:

- a whitepaper with a formal description of our proof system
- a Lean4 repo for our formal methods work

Deets & links in 🧵👇

[1/] Release #1: a formal description for our proof system

The proof system is STARK-based, using DEEP-ALI & FRI. For all the details, you can check out the draft here:

risczero.com/proof-system-i…

[2/]

We’re excited to announce another round of RISC Zero's Study Club!

Feb 1 & 15
Mar 15 & 29
9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm UTC

Zoom Link: zoom.us/j/99200763534

[1/] Feb 1: What RISC-V has to do with RISC Zero’s zkVM with Erik Kaneda

Ever wondered how a general purpose assembly language found its place in the zk landscape?
We’ll discuss compilers and interpreters and how we incorporate them into our zk world.

[2/]

Looking for more digestible introductions to FRI and/or finite fields?

We just dropped a bunch of 2-3 minute youtube videos explaining various conceptual building blocks!

[1/ ] e.g., here's a super brief introduction to the Prover-Verifier interactions in the FRI protocol