What is a zkSNARKed EVM and why is it important to the scalability of Ethereum?
Currently all nodes execute all smart contract logic associated with each transaction in order to deem it valid. So even if you spin up a full node, as it downloads all historic blocks your node will also execute all of the historic smart contract transactions.
It’s easy to see how this can be a barrier to scalability as higher transactional capacity (of complex transactions) is needed.
Once the EVM undergoes snarkification, it will enable the execution of all smart contract logic off-chain, generating proofs that can subsequently be posted on-chain.
This means that validators won’t actually have to execute the smart contract logic for a particular transaction and can quickly verify that the proposed results of the transaction is accurate.
This can theoretically increase total transactional throughput for the same amount of validator compute as the compute is offloaded onto other parties which specifically handle the execution of the smart contract logic.
Additionally, it adds privacy because the validator doesn’t know exactly what happened during execution it just knows the beginning and the ending state for a given account.
As chatGPT said: “This allows for the verification of the computation’s integrity without revealing the underlying data or steps taken during the computation.”
“By executing computations off-chain and submitting proofs to the blockchain, smart contracts can benefit from improved scalability, reduced transaction costs, and enhanced privacy. Off-chain execution enables complex and resource-intensive computations to be performed without burdening the blockchain, making it a powerful technique for optimizing smart contract performance.”
About the author
Andrew Scott Riley is a research consultant at Cyber Capital. With his computer science background, he analyzes cryptocurrency projects and whitepapers and compiles extensive research reports.
About Cyber Capital
Cyber Capital, Europe’s oldest cryptocurrency investment fund, is a fund manager that specialized in providing exposure to the crypto-asset markets as an alternative asset class. Cyber Capital is fully registered by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets under the AIFMD-light regime and the Dutch Central Bank.
