It’s a Different Sort of Olympics as Cryptographers Face Off in Polyhedra’s ‘Proof Arena’

A
nice
thing
about
watching
Olympic
swimming
is
that
it’s
not
too
complicated
to
determine
who’s
the
fastest.
Everyone
dives
into
the
same
pool,
there’s
some
paddling,
and
at
the
end
of
the
final
lap,
one
person
touches
the
wall
first.

The
same
can’t
be
said
for
blockchains,
where
engineers
are
always
releasing
ever
more
powerful,
speedier
systems,
and
use-cases
and
transaction
types
vary
from
project
to
project,
as
do
tools
and
methods
for
measuring
performance.
The
dilemma
extends
to
designers
of
cryptographic
tools,
and
the
myriad
ways
of
reporting

hashes
per
second.

Such
was
the
backdrop
as
Polyhedra
Network,
a
team
building
a
crucial
blockchain
component
known
as
a
cryptographic
“prover,”
set
out
to
develop
a
just-released
platform
called
“Proof
Arena”
that’s
designed
to
serve
as,
well,
a
proving
ground.

Just
a
few
months
ago,
the
Polyhedra
team
released
an
open-source
zero-knowledge
proof
system
–
used
in
many
setups
for
auxiliary
blockchains
known
as
“layer
2s”
–
that
was
“nearly
2x
faster
than
alternatives.”
But
how
did
they
really
know?

Eric
Vreeland,
Polyhedra’s
chief
strategy
officer,
said
the
team
decided
to
develop
Proof
Arena
so
developers
could
test
various
provers
in
a
controlled
environment
–
“people
evaluating
the
performance
of
various
proof
systems
for
a
particular
proof
generation
task.”

“Proof
Arena
will
allow
ZK-proof
system
creators
to
compare
their
systems
against
others
in
a
clear
and
scientific
manner
while
ensuring
that
all
controllable
variables
are
held
constant,”
according
to
a
press
release
Wednesday.

Outputs
from
the
testing
system
include
proof
generation
time,
memory
peak
and
setup
time,
according
to
Vreeland.
Here’s
what
that
might
look
like
in
a
hypothetical
scenario:

Builders
of
the
provers
can
also
submit
their
systems
“for
inclusion
in
the
arena,”
Vreeland
said.

Initially,
the
project
will
be
set
up
to
generate
benchmarks
for
Polyhedra’s
own
“Expander”
ZK-proof
system,
Polygon’s
Plonky3,
StarkWare’s
Stwo
and
Linea’s
Gnark.

“The
team
plans
to
support
all
open-source
proof
systems
and
will
provide
benchmarks
for
frequent
ZK
tasks
like
Keccak
and
Poseidon
hash
verification
run
on
a
variety
of
machine
configurations,”
according
to
the
press
release.

That
might
all
sound
like
gibberish,
but
for
cryptographers,
it’s
what
they
care
about.

And
the
pros
might
like
the
chance
to
prove
their
worth.