In Season 4 of Optimism Governance
The community rallied around Collective Intents, where teams work on tightly scoped, specific initiatives known as Missions. As part of this process, the Optimism Foundation set forth Missions for critical areas of growth and development within the Collective.
Technical Decentralization Intent and ZK Proof Implementation
A key part of building towards the Technical Decentralization Intent is implementing a Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) for the OP Stack. For OP Chains in the Superchain, this is an important ingredient to further secure and add low latency cross chain communication between L2 and L1, as well as directly between OP Chains. This system supports both high and low latency options, which is necessary for achieving full composability and unlocking new use cases, and contributing to overall scalability. A ZKP for a well-supported instruction set architecture (ISA) that can prove the OP Stack fault proof program acts as the foundation for a system that can prove any OP Stack-based blockchain.
RISC Zero and O(1) Labs Accepted Proposals
The explosion of activity on L2s underscores how deeply crypto users value low fees and high performance, and two teams submitted approaches that stood out to help achieve this for users. As a result, proposals from RISC Zero and O(1) Labs were accepted to work on the Mission.
- cRUSTaceans, rejoice: RISC Zero is bringing Rust-based ZK validity proofs to the OP Stack
- O(1) Labs brings the ZK tech powering Mina protocol to the OP Stack
RISC Zero’s Approach
RISC Zero envisions a world where ZK Proofs are accessible to everyone, and developers can prove and verify any computation through RISC Zero’s general purpose ZK Virtual Machine. To realize this vision, the team is committed to an open source stack that removes barriers that once plagued ZK and always prioritizes hands-on engagement with ZKPs. At the heart of this is RISC-V zkVM, which enables developers to write their programs in native Rust and abstracts away the cryptographic complexities of ZKPs.
RISC Zero saw alignment with OP Stack’s commitment to a shared and open source future. ZKPs will enable the next paradigm of the OP Stack by creating a connected and highly interoperable Superchain. Withdrawals, bridging, and Superchain governance are all areas where RISC Zero sees their ZKPs dramatically improving the experience of users and developers.
O(1) Labs’ Approach
O(1) Lab aims to catalyze a new generation of applications powered by zero knowledge cryptography by creating the foundations and tools for developers to build ZK applications. This includes designing and implementing the zkApp model for the Mina protocol, the first ZK-native blockchain, o1js, a Typescript library and embedded DSL for zk-powered applications, and Kimchi+Pickles, a proof system and recursion library.
Now work on a MIPS zkVM will bring the power of zero-knowledge to the OP Stack. This is the first step on the road to eliminating the seven day withdrawal window, which improves the user experience and enhances the chain’s “trustlessness.” This work also brings the Mina Protocol and OP Stack closer together, opening a pathway for applications built on the OP Stack to interact with the Mina Protocol.
Progress and Engagement
Both RISC Zero and O(1) Labs have committed to providing regular progress updates. The community can follow along on the Mission’s GitHub page and follow RISC Zero and O(1) Labs on Twitter. It is exciting to have two incredible teams with two unique approaches working towards achieving a Mission that will have a tremendous impact on the Optimism ecosystem.
If you’re eager for more info, RISC Zero and O(1) Labs will be leading a workshop on bringing ZK proofs to the OP Stack as a part of Optimism’s Onchain Summit at Devconnect in Istanbul! Follow us on Twitter for updates about Optimism’s Devconnect programming.
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