Intro
As we envision a future where blockchain underpins a global financial system and operates as a decentralized supercomputer, prioritizing fundamental principles is essential. However, the current landscape has fallen short in delivering core values like transparency, verifiability, and trustlessness. Instead, we grapple with issues such as the centralization of Layer 2 solutions, frequent bridge hacks, and concentrated validator control.
To create a truly cohesive and borderless internet of value, we must emphasize self-custody, decentralization, scalability and verifiability. These principles are not mere ideals; they are vital for constructing a resilient infrastructure that allows people and communities to coordinate seamlessly across borders. This digital evolution, driven by zero-knowledge proofs, will pave the way for a more secure and decentralized ecosystem.
Kakarot
The broader industry acknowledges Ethereum as the leading settlement layer, prompting a surge of initiatives aimed at scaling its infrastructure. While these efforts vary in their commercial and technological success, they have significantly contributed to research and development, steering focus toward the most effective scaling solutions for the EVM—zero-knowledge proofs. Notable projects currently in production, such as zkSync, Starknet, and Mina, exemplify this fundamental goal of enhancing the existing blockchain ecosystem through zk-proofs.
The Kakarot team is dedicated to developing the most lightweight and efficient proving engine in the blockchain space, emphasizing maximum performance while minimizing resource consumption. This groundbreaking engine will facilitate the convergence of key technologies, bringing us closer to a fully provable blockchain environment.
Kakarot's proving engine will provide EVM provability across various domains, including Layer 2 solutions, EVM-compatible blockchains, sidechains, and EVM-compatible rollups on Bitcoin.
Let's quickly reiterate why zero-knowledge technology is essential for blockchain scalability
At its very core, zero knowledge enables compression of computation. Particularly when implemented through zero-knowledge proofs, it is a game-changer for blockchain scalability.
In existing implementations and architectures, there are two primary methods to verify that an on-chain action was executed correctly:
Re-execution of computation
In decentralized networks, the only way to guarantee accuracy is to re-execute the action independently. For example, a user running a Bitcoin full node downloads each new block and verifies every transaction to ensure the block's validity.
ZK proof verification
With ZK, users can verify a proof that confirms a particular action was performed correctly, without re-executing the entire process.
The main advantage of this approach is that verifying a proof is exponentially more efficient than re-executing the entire computation. In ZK-powered networks, nodes only need to validate the proofs that confirm transactions were executed correctly, resulting in substantial savings in both cost and resources. This principle forms the foundation of ZK-rollups' scalability. However, a key challenge lies in ensuring that the underlying network - in this case Ethereum - can trust that the rollup transactions are legitimate. The solution is to generate a cryptographic proof that mathematically certifies the validity of all transactions. This is achieved through zero-knowledge proof technology, or zk-proofs, which allows the network to verify the integrity of transactions without needing to re-execute them.
This approach is also crucial for cross-network interoperability, particularly as the industry shifts towards a multi chain future. With a rollup centric roadmap on Ethereum, Bitcoin Layer 2s, and Solana extensions, multiple networks will inevitably coexist. ZK technology enables trustelss and asynchronous interaction and communication between these diverse ecosystems.
The zkEVM
For any rollup that leverages the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and benefits from Ethereum's inherent properties, compatibility with EVM smart contracts is crucial. This compatibility ensures that transactions, on-chain interactions, and dApps are not only mathematically secure but also leveraging the most optimal execution environment. This need for seamless integration and enhanced security has given rise to the concept of the "zkEVM."
Very early on, Kakarot identified the limitations in achieving EVM compatibility with Cairo and decided to build a zkEVM, effectively creating an EVM layer on top of Starkwares Virtual Machine. This approach seeks to address compatibility bottlenecks and improve the integration of EVM capabilities within the Starknet ecosystem. Since Starknet's native smart contract language, Cairo, is not EVM compatible, it poses a significant friction point for developers and applications that wish to build on the most cost-effective and high-performance zkRollup. By implementing a zkEVM, Kakarot eliminates this barrier, making it easier for developers to deploy EVM-based solutions on Starknet.
Kakarot in a Nutshell
At its core, Kakarot is creating a zkEVM implementation in Cairo, enabling transactions to be provably verified. This functionality is driven by the CairoVM, a Turing-complete, provable CPU architecture that forms the backbone of Kakarot. As a smart contract deployed on Starknet, Kakarot can execute arbitrary EVM bytecode, deploy EVM-compatible smart contracts seamlessly, and call functions of Kakarot-developed EVM contracts, effectively serving as a sophisticated EVM bytecode interpreter. By providing an Ethereum-compatible JSON-RPC interface, developers can effortlessly deploy any Solidity or EVM-based code on Kakarot, just as they would on Ethereum itself.
Kakarot's key design advantages
Lightweight and modular Design: By building the EVM on top of an intermediary ZK - VM like Cairo, rather than using specialized circuits, it allows kakarot to adapt rapidly to changes within Ethereum, like Shanghai and Dencun earlier this year. Additionally, by leveraging CairoVM, Kakarot brings EVM compatibility to the Starknet network, effectively bridging the gap between EVM-native applications and the Starknet ecosystem.
Efficiency and performance: By empowering EVM based applications to natively deploy on Kakarots zkEVM, they are able to take full advantage of the technological improvements and innovations developed by Starkware.
The best example for such is the upcoming STWO prover, which will deliver a performance that is several orders of magnitude (~1000x) more efficient compared to the current STARK prover. Kakarot's design is able to easily implement such advancements without introducing additional cost nor computational complications for application developers building on Kakarot.
The Grand Vision: Achieve Provable EVM Executions Across the Entire Ecosystem
Kakarot + ETH = keth
With its latest product advancements, Kakarot is setting its vision far beyond simply bridging the gap between the EVM ecosystem and Starkware. The project is now driving a bold vision to fully integrate and unify these ecosystems, unlocking new possibilities for developers and accelerating the adoption of cutting-edge, zero-knowledge technology.
Keth is set to emerge as a leading proving engine, bringing “STARKification” to every EVM-equivalent network, including rollups and appchains. Its primary aim is to facilitate the transition from Optimistic to ZK-rollups by employing a sidecar model that cryptographically proves each transaction within an Optimistic rollup, thereby offering a more efficient and secure scaling solution. Additionally, Keth will enhance existing EVM ZK-rollups by leveraging Starkware's technological advancements, providing a more cost-effective and high-performance proving stack. With the advanced capabilities of STWO, the proving engine behind Keth, this solution promises to achieve performance levels significantly superior to current provers. This exponential improvement sets a new standard for efficiency and scalability in the proving landscape. Furthermore, Keth will accelerate the adoption of Stage 2 architecture across rollups by enabling multi-proof systems.
This innovative approach allows rollups to validate their integrity using multiple simultaneous provers, such as Keth, Succinct's Reth, or TEEs. As a result, Keth ensures robust security and consistent state validation while sidestepping the high costs typically associated with traditional proof systems.
By approaching this vision, Kakarot's first major application will enable EVM execution to Starknet, a leading ZK-rollup scaling solution developed by Starkware. By enabling developers to write smart contracts in both Solidity and Cairo, Kakarot bridges the gap between Ethereum's familiar EVM environment and Starknet's high-performance infrastructure. This interoperability makes it easier for EVM-based dApps and bluechip infrastructure to seamlessly launch on Starknet, while allowing Starknet-native protocols to reach EVM users.
Beyond rollups, the emergence of various appchains has highlighted ongoing challenges with composability and interoperability across networks. Kakarot’s product suite aims to address these bottlenecks by introducing provability across a network of appchains, ensuring seamless integration and interaction. Positioned to compete with solutions like ZKSync's ZK Stack and Polygon CDK in both speed and cost, Kakarot's stack will empower a new breed of appchains that leverage Starknet's underlying infrastructure while delivering the best EVM practices, enabling a more interconnected and efficient blockchain ecosystem.
Verifiability on Bitcoin
With the increasing number of Rollups and general scaling solutions of Bitcoin, the ecosystem of such solutions is exacerbating similar bottlenecks as Rollups and appchains in the EVM environment - the fragmentation of assets and liquidity. However, with the reintroduction of the OP_CAT module, Starkware plans to extend the Starknet network to Bitcoin, making it the first Layer 2 to settle transactions on both Bitcoin and Ethereum. This integration allows ZK-STARK proofs to be verified directly on Bitcoin, paving the way for enhanced scalability with improved security and integrity, similar to the capabilities ZK-rollups provide for Ethereum.
Kakarot's proving engine will enable proof and transaction verifiability on Bitcoin. Similar to the above solution to transition optimistic Rollups into zkRollups, Kakarot will enable self-custody and minimizing trust requirements for BTC bridged assets, unlocking trust minimized DeFi on Bitcoin. Furthermore, Kakarot will add EVM execution capabilities to Starknet as it settles on both Ethereum and Bitcoin, ultimately transforming Starknet into the first ZK-EVM Layer 2 on Bitcoin.
Conclusion
In summary, Kakarot is pioneering a vision for global EVM provability. At the heart of this initiative is its advanced proving engine, designed to deliver efficient and secure transaction verification across diverse applications, including Layer 2 solutions, EVM-compatible blockchains, and Bitcoin rollups. Kakarot aspires to establish a future where provability is the norm across all blockchain environments, fostering a decentralized and interconnected digital economy. By prioritizing a trust-minimized and cryptographically secure framework, Kakarot is building a resilient infrastructure that facilitates seamless collaboration and coordination on a global scale.
Intro
As we envision a future where blockchain underpins a global financial system and operates as a decentralized supercomputer, prioritizing fundamental principles is essential. However, the current landscape has fallen short in delivering core values like transparency, verifiability, and trustlessness. Instead, we grapple with issues such as the centralization of Layer 2 solutions, frequent bridge hacks, and concentrated validator control.
To create a truly cohesive and borderless internet of value, we must emphasize self-custody, decentralization, scalability and verifiability. These principles are not mere ideals; they are vital for constructing a resilient infrastructure that allows people and communities to coordinate seamlessly across borders. This digital evolution, driven by zero-knowledge proofs, will pave the way for a more secure and decentralized ecosystem.
Kakarot
The broader industry acknowledges Ethereum as the leading settlement layer, prompting a surge of initiatives aimed at scaling its infrastructure. While these efforts vary in their commercial and technological success, they have significantly contributed to research and development, steering focus toward the most effective scaling solutions for the EVM—zero-knowledge proofs. Notable projects currently in production, such as zkSync, Starknet, and Mina, exemplify this fundamental goal of enhancing the existing blockchain ecosystem through zk-proofs.
The Kakarot team is dedicated to developing the most lightweight and efficient proving engine in the blockchain space, emphasizing maximum performance while minimizing resource consumption. This groundbreaking engine will facilitate the convergence of key technologies, bringing us closer to a fully provable blockchain environment.
Kakarot's proving engine will provide EVM provability across various domains, including Layer 2 solutions, EVM-compatible blockchains, sidechains, and EVM-compatible rollups on Bitcoin.
Let's quickly reiterate why zero-knowledge technology is essential for blockchain scalability
At its very core, zero knowledge enables compression of computation. Particularly when implemented through zero-knowledge proofs, it is a game-changer for blockchain scalability.
In existing implementations and architectures, there are two primary methods to verify that an on-chain action was executed correctly:
Re-execution of computation
In decentralized networks, the only way to guarantee accuracy is to re-execute the action independently. For example, a user running a Bitcoin full node downloads each new block and verifies every transaction to ensure the block's validity.
ZK proof verification
With ZK, users can verify a proof that confirms a particular action was performed correctly, without re-executing the entire process.
The main advantage of this approach is that verifying a proof is exponentially more efficient than re-executing the entire computation. In ZK-powered networks, nodes only need to validate the proofs that confirm transactions were executed correctly, resulting in substantial savings in both cost and resources. This principle forms the foundation of ZK-rollups' scalability. However, a key challenge lies in ensuring that the underlying network - in this case Ethereum - can trust that the rollup transactions are legitimate. The solution is to generate a cryptographic proof that mathematically certifies the validity of all transactions. This is achieved through zero-knowledge proof technology, or zk-proofs, which allows the network to verify the integrity of transactions without needing to re-execute them.
This approach is also crucial for cross-network interoperability, particularly as the industry shifts towards a multi chain future. With a rollup centric roadmap on Ethereum, Bitcoin Layer 2s, and Solana extensions, multiple networks will inevitably coexist. ZK technology enables trustelss and asynchronous interaction and communication between these diverse ecosystems.
The zkEVM
For any rollup that leverages the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and benefits from Ethereum's inherent properties, compatibility with EVM smart contracts is crucial. This compatibility ensures that transactions, on-chain interactions, and dApps are not only mathematically secure but also leveraging the most optimal execution environment. This need for seamless integration and enhanced security has given rise to the concept of the "zkEVM."
Very early on, Kakarot identified the limitations in achieving EVM compatibility with Cairo and decided to build a zkEVM, effectively creating an EVM layer on top of Starkwares Virtual Machine. This approach seeks to address compatibility bottlenecks and improve the integration of EVM capabilities within the Starknet ecosystem. Since Starknet's native smart contract language, Cairo, is not EVM compatible, it poses a significant friction point for developers and applications that wish to build on the most cost-effective and high-performance zkRollup. By implementing a zkEVM, Kakarot eliminates this barrier, making it easier for developers to deploy EVM-based solutions on Starknet.
Kakarot in a Nutshell
At its core, Kakarot is creating a zkEVM implementation in Cairo, enabling transactions to be provably verified. This functionality is driven by the CairoVM, a Turing-complete, provable CPU architecture that forms the backbone of Kakarot. As a smart contract deployed on Starknet, Kakarot can execute arbitrary EVM bytecode, deploy EVM-compatible smart contracts seamlessly, and call functions of Kakarot-developed EVM contracts, effectively serving as a sophisticated EVM bytecode interpreter. By providing an Ethereum-compatible JSON-RPC interface, developers can effortlessly deploy any Solidity or EVM-based code on Kakarot, just as they would on Ethereum itself.
Kakarot's key design advantages
Lightweight and modular Design: By building the EVM on top of an intermediary ZK - VM like Cairo, rather than using specialized circuits, it allows kakarot to adapt rapidly to changes within Ethereum, like Shanghai and Dencun earlier this year. Additionally, by leveraging CairoVM, Kakarot brings EVM compatibility to the Starknet network, effectively bridging the gap between EVM-native applications and the Starknet ecosystem.
Efficiency and performance: By empowering EVM based applications to natively deploy on Kakarots zkEVM, they are able to take full advantage of the technological improvements and innovations developed by Starkware.
The best example for such is the upcoming STWO prover, which will deliver a performance that is several orders of magnitude (~1000x) more efficient compared to the current STARK prover. Kakarot's design is able to easily implement such advancements without introducing additional cost nor computational complications for application developers building on Kakarot.
The Grand Vision: Achieve Provable EVM Executions Across the Entire Ecosystem
Kakarot + ETH = keth
With its latest product advancements, Kakarot is setting its vision far beyond simply bridging the gap between the EVM ecosystem and Starkware. The project is now driving a bold vision to fully integrate and unify these ecosystems, unlocking new possibilities for developers and accelerating the adoption of cutting-edge, zero-knowledge technology.
Keth is set to emerge as a leading proving engine, bringing “STARKification” to every EVM-equivalent network, including rollups and appchains. Its primary aim is to facilitate the transition from Optimistic to ZK-rollups by employing a sidecar model that cryptographically proves each transaction within an Optimistic rollup, thereby offering a more efficient and secure scaling solution. Additionally, Keth will enhance existing EVM ZK-rollups by leveraging Starkware's technological advancements, providing a more cost-effective and high-performance proving stack. With the advanced capabilities of STWO, the proving engine behind Keth, this solution promises to achieve performance levels significantly superior to current provers. This exponential improvement sets a new standard for efficiency and scalability in the proving landscape. Furthermore, Keth will accelerate the adoption of Stage 2 architecture across rollups by enabling multi-proof systems.
This innovative approach allows rollups to validate their integrity using multiple simultaneous provers, such as Keth, Succinct's Reth, or TEEs. As a result, Keth ensures robust security and consistent state validation while sidestepping the high costs typically associated with traditional proof systems.
By approaching this vision, Kakarot's first major application will enable EVM execution to Starknet, a leading ZK-rollup scaling solution developed by Starkware. By enabling developers to write smart contracts in both Solidity and Cairo, Kakarot bridges the gap between Ethereum's familiar EVM environment and Starknet's high-performance infrastructure. This interoperability makes it easier for EVM-based dApps and bluechip infrastructure to seamlessly launch on Starknet, while allowing Starknet-native protocols to reach EVM users.
Beyond rollups, the emergence of various appchains has highlighted ongoing challenges with composability and interoperability across networks. Kakarot’s product suite aims to address these bottlenecks by introducing provability across a network of appchains, ensuring seamless integration and interaction. Positioned to compete with solutions like ZKSync's ZK Stack and Polygon CDK in both speed and cost, Kakarot's stack will empower a new breed of appchains that leverage Starknet's underlying infrastructure while delivering the best EVM practices, enabling a more interconnected and efficient blockchain ecosystem.
Verifiability on Bitcoin
With the increasing number of Rollups and general scaling solutions of Bitcoin, the ecosystem of such solutions is exacerbating similar bottlenecks as Rollups and appchains in the EVM environment - the fragmentation of assets and liquidity. However, with the reintroduction of the OP_CAT module, Starkware plans to extend the Starknet network to Bitcoin, making it the first Layer 2 to settle transactions on both Bitcoin and Ethereum. This integration allows ZK-STARK proofs to be verified directly on Bitcoin, paving the way for enhanced scalability with improved security and integrity, similar to the capabilities ZK-rollups provide for Ethereum.
Kakarot's proving engine will enable proof and transaction verifiability on Bitcoin. Similar to the above solution to transition optimistic Rollups into zkRollups, Kakarot will enable self-custody and minimizing trust requirements for BTC bridged assets, unlocking trust minimized DeFi on Bitcoin. Furthermore, Kakarot will add EVM execution capabilities to Starknet as it settles on both Ethereum and Bitcoin, ultimately transforming Starknet into the first ZK-EVM Layer 2 on Bitcoin.
Conclusion
In summary, Kakarot is pioneering a vision for global EVM provability. At the heart of this initiative is its advanced proving engine, designed to deliver efficient and secure transaction verification across diverse applications, including Layer 2 solutions, EVM-compatible blockchains, and Bitcoin rollups. Kakarot aspires to establish a future where provability is the norm across all blockchain environments, fostering a decentralized and interconnected digital economy. By prioritizing a trust-minimized and cryptographically secure framework, Kakarot is building a resilient infrastructure that facilitates seamless collaboration and coordination on a global scale.
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