Celer Ranks Polygon Zero Starky as Fastest ZKP Implementation (With Caveats)

Speed vs. Memory in ZKP Frameworks

Polygon’s circuit development framework Starky emerged as the fastest zero knowledge proof (ZKP) implementation examined by Celer Network, although its proof size is much larger than SNARK frameworks it was being compared against.

In the benchmark report, Celer tested the following frameworks:

• Circom + snarkjs / rapidsnark
• gnark
• Arkworks
• Halo 2 (KZG)
• Plonky2
• Starky.

In terms of the bottom-line results, “Starky .. shows a much shorter proof generation time but at the cost of a much larger proof size. In terms of memory efficiency, rapidsnark and Starky outperform other frameworks,” according to Celer.

Celer noted that these results were limited to circuit development frameworks, promising a separate report “benchmarking different zkVMs (e.g., Scroll, Polygon zkEVM, Consensys zkEVM, zkSync, Risc Zero, zkWasm) and IR compiler frameworks (e.g., Noir, zkLLVM) in the future.”

The ZKP framework test is the initial move in Celer’s attempt to build a “Pantheon of Zero Knowledge Proof.”

According to the blog, “The first step will be to encourage the community to share reproducible benchmarking results from various ZKP frameworks. Our ultimate goal is to collectively and collaboratively create and maintain a universally recognized evaluation testbed that covers low-level circuit development frameworks, high-level zkVMs and compilers, and even hardware acceleration providers.”

Check out the entire report on the Celer blog.

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What is Celer Network:

Celer Network is the leading inter-blockchain and cross-layer communication platform in the industry. The protocol offers fast, secure, and cheap bridging between multiple chains. The Celer ecosystem comprises three unique products: inter-chain Message Framework, cBridge, and Layer2.Finance.

What is Polygon:

Polygon is a “sidechain” scaling solution that runs alongside the Ethereum blockchain — allowing for speedy transactions and low fees. MATIC is the network’s native cryptocurrency, which is used for fees, staking, and more. The effectiveness of Polygon as an alternative to Ethereum has seen existing projects such as Aave and Curve adopting its chain.