Delegation of zkSnark Provers on Aleo

In the realm of blockchain and cryptographic advances, the concept of delegating the intensive computational task of generating zk-SNARK proofs to specialized service providers has been a topic of intrigue. This concept, first detailed in the ZEXE paper co-authored by Howard Wu, highlights how to offload the computationally-intensive task of generating proofs to service providers who possess the required hardware resources using cryptographic primitives.

Aleo has implemented a unique Proof-of-Succinct-Work (PoSW) algorithm to attract a substantial base of miners and hardware acceleration teams. This strategic move stems from the belief that future blockchain computation will revolve around ‘necessary computation,’ and in this new era, zk-SNARKs represent a form of PoW that is not only meaningful but also capable of addressing real-world computational challenges.

As Aleo’s mainnet launch draws nearer, it’s evident that not only Aleo but various projects in its ecosystem are progressing towards this goal. Below is the latest Aleo repository:

This is an example of the official Aleo simulated service provider code for generating proofs. The general process for generating proofs for a contract is roughly as follows:

1. Generating Authorize Request: This is akin to generating a Transaction Request in Ethereum. However, Aleo’s approach involves more stringent legal constraints on a broader range of elements.

2. Executing the Proof: The prover uses the authorized request to generate a proof and the corresponding response (which includes output collection and proof).

3. Packaging and Sending: The request and response are packaged together and sent to the blockchain.

In this framework, the authorize request is generated by the client, while the intensive computational task of execution is delegated to provers. Additionally, Aleo’s network offers advantages compared to zkRollups in batch transaction proving, particularly in the granularity of proofs required for transactions. This implies that as the ecosystem grows, the market for proofs will expand, avoiding the potential winner-take-all scenario common in zkRollup ecosystems.

The buzz is not limited to the Aleo team, however, its ecosystem is also burgeoning with new developments. There are rumors that the Leo wallet will soon support the aforementioned delegation protocol.

Furthermore, the emerging decentralized compute networks are poised to capture a significant market share. For instance, Gevulot recently secured $6 million in funding, which was optimized exclusively for zero-knowledge proof generation and verification. Users can permissionlessly deploy any prover and offload compute to a network of sophisticated hardware operators. It was started at Equilibrium Group, which builds core technology for the likes of Starknet, Aleo, ZkSync, Celestia, and others. The Devnet is targeted for March 25th with four leading node operators: supranational, P2P.org, Staking Facilities and RockawayX Infrastructure.

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