From a Referral Link to a Revelation: My Journey into Cysic

How a simple invite led me to one of the most significant infrastructure plays in zero‑knowledge computing.

THE FULL STACK COMPUTE NETWORK

The Beginning

A friend sent me his campaign referral link and I joined more to help him than because I believed in the project. I wasn’t expecting much , just tasks, points, maybe a reward. As I worked through the steps, exploring the ecosystem, I repeatedly stumbled across the name “Cysic”. It stood out because I began reading about hardware, zero‑knowledge proofs, compute networks things I hadn’t deeply explored before. That curiosity turned into a deeper investigation when I realized this wasn’t just another token drop or protocol launch. It was infrastructure, the kind that underpins everything else.

Who Founded Cysic

Cysic was founded in 2022 by Xiong Leo(Leo Fan) and Bowen Huang.

Xiong (Leo) Fan holds a PhD (Cornell) in cryptography and has a background in applied cryptography and system design.

Leo Fan

Bowen Huang comes from chip design and hardware engineering.

Their mission:

“If we can make zero‑knowledge proofs faster and cheaper, we can unlock a new era of trustless computing.”

They identified that while the promise of ZK proofs is huge (privacy, scalability, verification), a major barrier remained: compute inefficiency. They set out to tackle that barrier.

The Problem They Are Solving

Zero‑knowledge proofs are powerful: you can prove that a statement is true without revealing the underlying data. They are key for privacy, for scalable blockchains, for trustless compute. But here’s the issue: generating and verifying those proofs often requires heavy compute CPUs, GPUs, sometimes FPGAs and the process can be slow, costly, and energy‑inefficient. Cysic sees that as one of the foundational bottlenecks: until proof generation becomes efficient, many of the promises of ZK remain theoretical. So Cysic’s strategy is to build hardware + software + network to make proof generation: faster, cheaper, more decentralised.

What Cysic Is Building

Cysic’s architecture and product stack can be thought of in three interconnected layers: hardware acceleration, software/SDK, and a compute network.

Hardware Acceleration

• Cysic develops purpose‑built accelerators: GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs.
• They are working on a proprietary “C1” chip (a zkVM‑based ASIC) which will power devices like “ZK Air” (portable) and “ZK Pro” (enterprise) for proof generation.
• On the GPU side, they have built GPU acceleration solutions that support major ZK backends. For example, their GPU SDK supports systems like Plonky2, Halo2, Gnark, Rapidsnark.
• The hardware‑software co‑design is a core differentiator: they optimize circuit designs, memory access patterns, hardware paths and compile chains so that the proof generation becomes highly efficient.

SOFTWARE / SDK STACK

• Cysic offers SDKs that aid in GPU acceleration of proof workflows, from witness generation to polynomial math to final proof.
• They introduced a stack called “ZKPoG” (Zero‑Knowledge Proof on GPU), which delivered measured speedups (on consumer GPUs) up to 52× compared to CPU, and scaled circuit size ~1.6× in internal tests.

Compute Network: Cysic Network

• Cysic isn’t just hardware + software, they aim to build a decentralised compute‑market network.
• This network allows compute contributors (Prover nodes, Verifier nodes, even mobile/PC endpoints) to participate in proof tasks and earn.
• The architecture: Hardware Layer → Consensus Layer → Execution Layer → Product Layer. The consensus uses a Proof‑of‑Compute (PoC) mechanism built on Cosmos CDK + EVM‑compatible layer.
• Real‑world testnet launch: Cysic launched its incentive testnet and points system.

Use Cases & Target Markets

Cysic’s offering touches a variety of markets where proof generation, verification, and verifiable compute matter.

• Zero‑knowledge proof generation at scale: allowing systems that rely heavily on ZK proofs to execute more efficiently.
• Verifiable computation: enabling models or applications to run through verifiable logic with hardware acceleration.
• Decentralised compute provision: enabling more participants (hardware owners, PC‑owners, even mobile devices) to contribute compute and gain rewards.
• ComputeFi / hardware as asset: tokenising compute resources, enabling liquidity, participation, financialisation of compute.

Roadmap & Key Milestones

• Seed funding and early hardware efforts: Cysic raised a $6 million seed round in December 2022.
• Pre‑A funding: In 2024, they completed a $12 million Pre‑A funding round led by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures.
• Testnet launch: Cysic launched its testnet, incentive system and points system in July/August period, inviting validators and computing contributors.
• Hardware products development: Planning/announcement of “ZK Air” and “ZK Pro” devices powered by the C1 chip.
• Network/governance build‑out: The architecture for their compute network, Proof‑of‑Compute consensus, token model (CYS native token, CGT governance token) are outlined in their documents.

Why It Matters

This isn’t just another protocol. Cysic is building at the foundation of the infrastructure stack: the compute layer. When we hear about scaling, rollups, verifiable AI, decentralised identity—many of those depend on proof generation, verification, compute participation. If proofs cost too much computing, or take too long, then “scalable” becomes “maybe later”. Cysic is addressing that core bottleneck. Moreover, they combine hardware innovation + software stack + decentralised network to turn compute into a participatory asset. That means hardware owners, community participants, developers can all engage in different ways. Finally, when compute power can be tokenised, shared, accelerated, and verified, the network effect grows. More nodes → more compute capacity → more tasks → more real‑world applications. Cysic positions itself to enable that.

My Personal Reflection

I started simply by helping a friend with a referral link. What I found instead was a story of infrastructure: hardware, proofs, decentralised compute. Seeing what Cysic is building made me shift: from “task participant” to “observer of infrastructure”. If you’re reading this, I encourage you to ask: What happens when proof generation is fast enough, cheap enough, accessible enough for mass adoption? Because the answer could shape an era in Web3 where trustless compute, verifiable logic, decentralised hardware economy become real.