ethereum skating firm = nil; Foundation introduces security-focused zkEVM

zero knowledge technology firm = nil; Foundation has developed a new Type-1 Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) processor to address the security concerns identified in the same ZK-powered Ethereum scaling solutions.

Speaking only for Cointelegraph, =nil; Misha Komarov, the foundation's CEO and co-founder, said the technology prioritizes security and allows high-level programming code to be automatically compiled into zero-knowledge short-knowledge argument (zk-SNARKS) circuits.

The company's zkEVM is designed to be compatible with evmone, a C++ version of Ethereum's base execution environment. The main starting point is proof that the application code is generated and submitted to Ethereum in the same manner as EVM.

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This compatibility is to ensure better security and faster implementation, because the bytecode is identical and eliminates the need for long and expensive code audits. The approach offers transactions and smart contracts that are directly compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine.

Several high-end zkEVMs are coming to market in 2023. These layer-2 protocols aim to help Ethereum handle large transaction loads and smart contract functions. Cointelegraph has covered these at length, with companies like Consensys, Polygon, StarkWare, and Matter Labs releasing ZK-rollup solutions to provide high-throughput, low-fee capabilities for decentralized applications, services, and network users.

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As Komarov explained, = nil; Foundation's solution relies on an automated compiler that compares the designs of other zkEVMs, which define circuits manually. He describes existing approaches as “time-consuming” and “overly complicated”, which risks introducing human error.

These concerns were evident with the discovery of a sanity error in the ZK-circuits used in Matter Labs' zkSync Era mainnet. Security firm Chainlight identified the vulnerability in September 2023 and received a 50,000 USD Coin (USDC) reward from the firm.

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The flaw would have allowed an attacker to improperly submit validations for executed blocks, which would have been accepted by smart contract validators on the Ethereum network. Matter Labs issued a fix and awarded ChainLight a bug bounty, the first to claim a ZK-circuit bug in the zkSync Era.

“Vitalik Buterin started talking about security issues, like what to do if a circuit breaks,” Komarov said.

“We started digging. The problem became clear that these circuits were written by hand. People have spent years building it, but it basically creates the same logic that an EVM does by hand in circuit representation.

Komarov added that this approach makes code auditing extremely difficult. The zkSync error is an example of the error potential involved in manually defined cycles. = nil; Foundation's approach is to automate the validation from the Ethereum EVM using a circuit compiler developed over the past two years.

The circuit is as close as we can get to having the same security as Ethereum's original implementation. If this is damaged then the circuit is broken.

The solution is also designed to adapt to EVM changes as the Ethereum roadmap continues, taking into account its automated design and providing a “future-proof” zkEVM compiler that requires less time and effort to upgrade. This allows zkEVM to integrate the latest Ethereum upgrade proposals when implemented.

The foundation published its prototype code repository and specifications on December 12.

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