DeepSummary
This podcast episode covers the development of Jolt, a new and highly performant zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) that uses SNARKs to enable efficient scaling of blockchains. The guests discuss the history and evolution of verifiable computing and SNARK design, drawing parallels between SNARK protocols and computer chip architecture.
The conversation delves into the intellectual underpinnings of Jolt, including the sumcheck protocol and lookup arguments like Lasso, which were key to achieving Jolt's performance improvements. The guests also highlight the challenges of translating abstract research into efficient engineering implementations, such as the need to vertically integrate and optimize various off-the-shelf libraries.
The episode explores potential applications of Jolt and zkVMs, such as verifiable compilation, decentralized social media feed algorithms, and decentralized app stores. The guests emphasize the importance of security and the need to formally verify the correctness of zkVM implementations to ensure they can be trusted with valuable assets.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Jolt is a breakthrough zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) that uses innovative cryptographic techniques like the sumcheck protocol and lookup arguments to achieve high performance and scalability for blockchains and other applications.
- Jolt's design draws surprising parallels between SNARK protocols and computer chip architectures, suggesting that principles of efficient hardware design may be applicable to zkVM development.
- Jolt provides a familiar and developer-friendly programming environment using standard languages like Rust, avoiding the complexity and error-proneness of specialized arithmetic circuits used in previous approaches.
- Translating abstract cryptographic research into efficient engineering implementations required significant effort in optimizing and vertically integrating various off-the-shelf libraries to suit Jolt's unique requirements.
- Potential applications of Jolt and zkVMs include verifiable compilation, decentralized social media feed algorithms, and decentralized app stores, among others.
- While performance is a key focus, the guests emphasize that security is even more crucial for zkVMs and SNARKs, as these systems are intended to handle valuable assets. Formal verification and bug-free implementations are essential.
- The development of Jolt highlights the importance of close collaboration between researchers and engineers to bridge the gap between theoretical insights and practical implementations.
- Jolt represents a significant step forward in zkVM design, but the guests acknowledge that further improvements in protocols, engineering, and specialized hardware are necessary to fully realize the potential of these technologies.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Snarks in general, and zkvms in particular, have a lot of potential to let that computer do more work than it can do today without sacrificing the sort of security decentralization property.“ by Justin Thaler
- “There's no new abstract programming model such as algebraic circuits or errors or any of this stuff. Pretty simple, fairly hard to screw up rust code.“ by Michael Xu
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Episode Information
web3 with a16z crypto
a16z crypto, Sonal Chokshi, Chris Dixon
5/1/24
with @SuccinctJT @samrags_ @moodlezoup @rhhackett
Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next era of the internet by the team at a16z crypto. That includes me, host Robert Hackett. Today's all new episode covers a very important and now fast developing area of technology that can help scale blockchains, but that also has many uses beyond blockchains as well.
That category of technology is verifiable computing, and specifically, SNARKs. So today we dig into zkVMs, or "zero knowledge virtual machines," which use SNARKs, and we discuss a new design for them that the guests on this episode helped develop — work that resulted in Jolt, the most performant, easy-for-developers-to-use zkVM to date.
The conversation that follows covers the history and evolution of the field, the surprising similarities between SNARK design and computer chip architecture, the tensions between general purpose versus application specific programming, and the challenges of turning abstract research theory into concrete engineering practice.
Our guests include Justin Thaler, research partner at a16z crypto and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University, who came up with the insights underpinning Jolt, along with collaborators from Microsoft Research, Carnegie Mellon, and New York Universities. His is the first voice you'll hear after mine, followed by Sam Ragsdale, investment engineer at a16z crypto, and Michael Zhu, research engineer at a16Z crypto, both of whom brought Jolt from concept to code.
Resources for references in this episode:
- "Jolt: SNARKs for Virtual Machines via Lookups" by Arasu Arun, Srinath Setty & Justin Thaler (Cryptology ePrint Archive, 2023)
- the Jolt Github page
- Michael Zhu and Sam Ragsdale’s post on the open source implementation
- Justin Thaler’s post on the ideas behind Jolt
- an FAQ untangling this new SNARK design paradigm
- our Lasso + Jolt archives
- ▶️📹 Jolt, zkVMs, and speeding up blockchains by Justin Thaler — a quick (five minute) explanation of what Jolt is and why it's important
- ▶️📹 Correcting some SNARK misconceptions by Justin Thaler — a deeper dive into some of the common misconceptions behind Lasso (the theoretical foundation of Jolt) and how this new paradigm works
- "Zero Knowledge Canon, Part 1 & 2" by Elena Burger et al. (a16z crypto, September 2022)
- Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach by Sanjeev Arora and Boaz Barak (Princeton University, January 2007)
As a reminder, none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.