SOON x Boundless: Revolutionizing SVM with Zero-Knowledge Proofs

We are thrilled to announce the strategic partnership between SOON and Boundless. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in SOON’s journey towards integrating ZK technology into our platform, transforming the SVM execution layer with enhanced security and verifiable computation.

Leveraging the Boundless protocol, SOON will deliver demonstrably secure, high-performance blockchain execution without reliance on traditional challenge periods, significantly accelerating transaction finality and enhancing overall network robustness.

Introducing Boundless

Boundless is a universal zero-knowledge protocol where anyone can access abundant verifiable compute from any chain. Boundless provides a network of nodes dedicated solely for execution, producing ZK proofs that the work was done correctly, verified on every chain at a low, constant cost. By decoupling execution from consensus, Boundless lets every chain keep its native security while escaping gas ceilings and re-execution.

Developed by the RISC Zero team, creators of the first RISC-V general-purpose zkVM, Boundless extends that pioneering work into a production-grade network built for real-world scale.

For optimistic rollups, Boundless offers OP Kailua: a plug-in ZK fraud proof framework that unlocks faster finality while keeping costs low. By pairing SOON’s high-throughput execution layer with OP Kailua on Boundless, the chain gains ZK-hardened finality while developers keep the familiar OP Stack tooling they already know.

Benefits for Boundless and SOON

This partnership enhances SVM capabilities while creating new opportunities for developers both in the growing ZK ecosystem and the SVM ecosystem.

• By integrating OP Kailua, SOON can achieve ZK-based security without traditional challenge periods. ZK proofs can be directly verified by validators, ensuring the security and trustworthiness of L2 transactions. It also enables high-throughput trading with a better user experience and high security. The momentum of ZK technology is inevitable, as blockchain security ultimately returns to the fundamental principles of cryptography.
• Compatibility with zk-VM within SVM enables SOON to support the deployment of all next-generation verifiable applications built on zk-VM, significantly extending the capabilities of SVM and enriching the SOON ecosystem. We warmly welcome developers of zk-VM applications to join the SOON ecosystem to collaboratively shape the future.
• Integrating Boundless also opens new development opportunities and possibilities within the ZK landscape. Through collaboration with SOON, Boundless provides ZK developers access to an ecosystem with a broad user base. Simultaneously, SOON will continue empowering the development of ZK technology, actively contributing to the broader ZK ecosystem.

Architectural Blueprint: How SOON Implements ZK through Boundless

What is OP Kailua?

OP Kailua, a groundbreaking development by RISC Zero (the team behind Boundless), provides OP-chain ecosystems a seamless and efficient upgrade path towards ZK integration. It empowers developers to choose between economically advantageous ZK fault proofs or comprehensive ZK validity proofs, enabling flexible integration without additional costs or operational disruptions.

For SOON, leveraging OP Kailua is particularly strategic, as SOON Stack is fundamentally based on the Op-Stack architecture.

Standard Op-Stack fault proofs, typically interactive and reliant on cumbersome bisection dispute mechanisms, necessitate a lengthy 7-day challenge period. In contrast, OP Kailua and solutions like OP-succinct present an innovative, zkVM-based alternative. To adapt ZK fault proofs effectively to SOON’s SVM architecture, tailored modifications to the ZK proving pipeline and core kona implementations are essential.

Architecture Overview

SOON is planning to develop the Derivation & Execution Pipeline, integrating OP Kailua on Boundless to implement ZK fault proofs within the SOON network. This strategic move addresses two pivotal integration challenges: Oracle Generation and the SOON Derivation & Execution Program.

Oracle Generation in SOON

Oracle generation in Kailua comprises two critical components: Oracle Client and Oracle Host.

Oracle Client

The Oracle Client encompasses three key modules: Preimage Client, HintWriter, and Cache. Within SOON’s Derivation Pipeline, execution-generated IO data resides initially in the Cache, ultimately transformed into a VecOracle. The VecOracle is integral to the witness generation process, subsequently encoded into ZK VM-compatible frames.

Oracle Host

Oracle Host follows a standardized Kona implementation, featuring Preimage Server, HintReader, and Backend modules. It responds efficiently to client IO requests by retrieving essential data through RPC calls from both L1 and L2 providers, orchestrated by its Backend module.

Generating Oracles within SOON Nodes

Due to the inherent limitations of the Solana Bank system—which SOON also utilizes—it is not feasible to retrieve arbitrary account states from historical block heights directly. Instead, a highly efficient approach stores recalled L2 accounts from specific execution phases into a dedicated database via Solana’s native geyser plug-in. This database seamlessly converts data into a VecOracle, compatible with subsequent ZK VM operations.

Derivation & Execution Program

The SOON platform derives L2 block transactions from its DA layer, encapsulated in batched Entry structures, following Solana’s design principles. The ZK VM Execution Pipeline comprises six essential stages:

1. Verify Oracle
2. Initialize Bank: Establishes a fresh bank state derived from a parent bank, initializing requisite inherent accounts.
3. Handle SOON Hard Forks
4. Transaction Batches Processor

• Check Batch Transactions: Transactions executed concurrently within SVM must be serialized for ZK compatibility. This step ensures transactions are conflict-free and valid, including additional checks for transaction age.
• Batch Transactions Processor: Executes transaction batches serially within SVM, specifically optimized for ZK VM efficiency.
• Commit Transactions: Finalizes processed transactions into the bank state.

5. Freeze Bank: Executes transaction fee collection and calculates a hash representing state differences (account delta hash) or computes the state Merkle root.

6. Verification: Confirms consistency by validating computed bank hashes against the claimed hash, an efficient alternative to traditional state root validations used by op-succinct.

Optimizing SVM Execution for ZK VM

Currently, the SOON ecosystem employs a Decoupled SVM API as its execution layer. However, existing implementations rely heavily on Solana-specific crates, OS calls, and internal caching mechanisms integrated deeply with Solana database components (Bank, Blockstore). These factors prevent direct compilation into ZK-compatible programs. To overcome this, SOON plans to develop a specialized, lightweight SVM tailored explicitly for ZK VM environments.

A dedicated lightweight SVM would streamline transaction execution logic, facilitating concise and computationally efficient ZK programs. While existing lightweight SVM initiatives, such as liteSVM, primarily serve smart contract testing scenarios, SOON’s goal is to pioneer a robust SVM specifically optimized for ZK environments, marking another critical innovation in blockchain scalability and security.

This partnership with Boundless strategically positions SOON at the forefront of blockchain infrastructure evolution, leveraging advanced ZK technology to deliver superior, scalable, and verifiable blockchain solutions to its users.