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What is Succinct?

Succinct is a protocol on Ethereum that proves the world's software. It coordinates hardware teams, infrastructure operators, and application developers to facilitate the generation of zero knowledge proofs. Application developers send programs in normal code that are wrapped with SP1 to the Succinct Network. This allows the infrastructure layer and hardware teams, who we jointly call provers, to compete to generate proofs of the programs' execution.

Sending your proofs to the Succinct Network feels just like running normal code. You can use the network to request proofs for ZK rollups, bridges, games, oracles, AI agents, and more. Via an auction-based approach, proofs are competitively priced and generated by the network of provers.

Succinct: The World's First Decentralized Prover Network​

The idea of a decentralized protocol in ZK proving is novel for several reasons. First, generating proofs is a computationally difficult task. Today, generating proofs for production workloads like ZK rollups requires using networked GPUs in a cluster. Because of this, generating ZK proofs for all the proving demand in the world is beyond the reach of any given team. It will require stitching together the world's compute, in datacenters and beyond, to meet the proving needs of tomorrow.

Second, proof generation will be subject to the performance gains afforded by accelerated hardware, just like other computation such as Bitcoin mining and AI training. A permissionless protocol that coordinates and incentivizes this buildout is important for ZK to become highly scalable.

Finally, a ZK proving network benefits from the automatic verifiability of proofs. In contrast to decentralized AI training, where it is not possible for a user to verify that a model in a datacenter was trained correctly on private or sensitive data, ZK proofs are self-verifying. A computation that is proven in SP1 can be automatically verified by a third party. This makes ZK proving particularly suited to permissionless participation.

Prior to the Succinct Network, attempts to scale up ZK proving have been bottlenecked by the fragmentation of supply and demand. For the first time, we can prove the world's software.

Key Features of the Succinct Network​

In its implementation, the Succinct Network sets up a global, distributed proving cluster composed of provers and requesters. The network is architected as a protocol that settles to Ethereum. It has the following key features:

Permissionless Participation​

Anyone can join the network as a prover, and anyone can submit requests by depositing fees. This openness drives global competition, ensures robust security, and prevents any single entity from monopolizing the proving process, ensuring users can rely on proofs.

High Performance, Verifiable Architecture​

The network is architected as a verifiable application (vApp) that settles to Ethereum. This gives users the experience of interacting with a high performance web application that can be independently verified by anyon, similar to the separation between an L2 sequencer and the on-chain settlement of an L2. The architecture is composed of two pieces:

  • Off-chain auctioneer service: Similar to an L2 sequencer, a specialized off-chain auctioneer service handles core coordination between requesters and provers, collecting proof requests, orchestrating auctions, and fulfilling proofs. The auctioneer matches requests with the most competitive provers without introducing additional latency or facing the throughput limits of modern blockchains.
  • On-chain settlement contracts: Smart contracts on Ethereum settle state roots and ZK proofs of correct execution posted by the auctioneer. This allows users to independently verify the state of the network and ensure that their deposits are secure. This also enables the user to easily withdraw funds, even if the auctioneer is not live.

The $PROVE Token​

PROVE, the native token of the network, enables payments, incentivizes provers to compete on costs, and secures the network with staking, distribution of value, and governance. The PROVE token is designed to directly incentivize provers' costs and ultimately accrue the benefits to applications that request proofs.

Competitive Pricing​

Provers worldwide compete to generate proofs via an auction mechanism (proof contests). This competition drives the cost of proving toward its true market level and continuously rewards those who invest in faster algorithms or better hardware, while ensuring robustness. As more provers enter, network capacity expands and prices become increasingly efficient.

Inspired by Incentivized Physical Infrastructure​

Drawing on the success of Bitcoin (incentivizing global-scale mining hardware), Filecoin (incentivizing decentralized storage), and other networks, the Succinct Prover Network extends the model of decentralized physical infrastructure to the domain of ZK proof generation. Like these networks, it uses protocol-level incentives, via fees paid in a native token, PROVE, to:

  • Attract specialized capacity (high-performance GPU clusters or custom hardware)
  • Drive competition on price and quality of service
  • Ensure ongoing R&D in proof systems

Crucially, while existing solutions do not necessarily deliver cost-effective, on-demand proofs to end users, the Succinct Prover Network directly induces free market competition on proof generation.