ZK Hardware Acceleration: Cysic's Ultimate Ambition

Recently, ZK technology has received considerable attention in the Web3 space. Vitalik reiterated the importance of ZK-SNARKs in Ethereum scaling at the Hong Kong Blockchain Summit and expressed optimism about the potential of ASIC chips for ZK acceleration. In fact, as early as 2022, top VCs had already acknowledged the significance of ZK hardware acceleration, with Paradigm even predicting that ZK miner revenues could rival those of Bitcoin or Ethereum miners.

With the popularity of ZK Rollup projects like Scroll, hardware acceleration has become a market hotspot. It is widely believed in the industry that the huge demand for ZK could lead to the emergence of new industrial chains through ZK mining pools and real-time ZKP generation SaaS models. Strong ZK hardware manufacturers are expected to become the next Bitmain.

Among the many ZK acceleration projects, Cysic stands out. The team has won important awards from ZPrize and received nearly $20 million in funding from top VCs such as Polychain. With the Cysic testnet about to go live, market discussions are becoming increasingly heated. This article will briefly introduce the product principles and business model of Cysic, and provide an overview of ZK hardware acceleration.

ZK Proof System Workflow

The ZK proof system, although complex, can be simply understood from the perspective of its functions and workflow:

1. Submit the content to be verified through the front end, and the system will perform format conversion.
2. Use specific proof systems ( such as Halo2, Plonk ) to generate ZK Proof
3. The specific steps include problem formulation, arithmetic and CSP, compilation into ZKP programs, etc.

It is worth noting that the main technologies widely used in blockchain today are zk-SNARK and ZK Rollup, which utilizes its simplicity rather than its zero-knowledge property. The characteristic of SNARK is that the cost for the Prover to generate the proof is high, but the cost for the Verifier to validate it is low. This asymmetry is beneficial for decentralized verification, which is precisely the idea behind Ethereum Layer 2.

However, transferring the verification costs to the ZK generation side is not a perfect solution. For ZK Rollup projects, the high costs of ZKP generation will ultimately affect user experience and transaction fees. Therefore, reducing ZKP generation costs has become a top priority, which is also the entry point for ZK acceleration projects like Cysic.

Main Costs of ZKP Generation

In the ZKP generation process, the most computationally intensive tasks are MSM( Multi-Scalar Multiplication) and NTT( Number Theoretic Transform). These two tasks account for 80-95% of the proof generation time.

MSM mainly deals with multi-scalar multiplication on elliptic curves, while NTT is the FFT over finite fields. Different combinations of schemes will result in different FFT/MSM load ratios. For example, Stark uses hash-based FRI commitments, which involve no MSM computations at all.

The simplest way to optimize the efficiency of MSM and NTT is to completely eliminate these operations. Some new algorithms like Hyperplonk modify Plonk and eliminate NTT operations. The STARK algorithm does not require MSM but introduces a large number of hash computations.

ZK Hardware Acceleration and Cysic's Development Strategy

Although software and algorithm optimization is important, there are limitations. To fully enhance the efficiency of ZKP generation, hardware acceleration must be used. Currently available hardware for ZK acceleration includes GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Cysic is committed to becoming the ultimate solution for ZK hardware acceleration, with a step-by-step strategy of:

1. GPU-based SDK development, providing solutions for ZK applications and integrating GPU resources.
2. Using FPGA to achieve fast customized ZK hardware acceleration
3. Independently developed ASIC-based ZK Depin hardware
4. Build the Cysic Network, integrating all computing power resources, to provide computing power and verification solutions for the ZK industry.

Cysic Network: ZK Mining Pool and SaaS Platform

The Cysic Network plan not only integrates its own computing power but will also absorb third-party computing resources through mining incentives. Its workflow includes:

1. The project party submits the proof task to the Agent.
2. Prover accepts the task and generates the ZK proof
3. The validator committee checks the validity of the proof and votes.

Cysic Network has built a dedicated public chain, using the Proof of Compute (PoC) consensus algorithm.

GPU, FPGA and ASIC Solutions

In terms of GPU acceleration, Cysic adapts various new types of ZK proof systems based on its self-developed CUDA SDK, and its GPU computing power network has linked hundreds of thousands of top-notch graphics cards. The Cysic CUDA SDK speeds up by more than 50%-80% compared to the latest open-source frameworks.

In terms of FPGA, Cysic has completed the implementation of the world's fastest modules such as MSM, NTT, and Poseidon Merkle tree. Its SolarMSM and SolarNTT achieved 0.195 seconds and 0.218 seconds respectively in computations of size 2^30, demonstrating the best performance.

In the ASIC field, Cysic has strategically laid out and launched two ZK DePIN products: ZK Air and ZK Pro. ZK Air is suitable for ordinary users and can connect to devices such as laptops to provide computing power support. ZK Pro is similar to traditional mining machines, with computing power comparable to multiple top-tier GPU servers, making it suitable for large ZK projects.

Through these layouts, Cysic aims to build a stable and reliable ZK-DePIN network, providing end users with low-threshold participation opportunities and driving the ZK computing market to explode again.