Space and Time, a cryptocurrency startup based in California, has introduced a cutting-edge ZK prover to enhance on-chain transactions and the growth of decentralized finance (defi).
The company, known as SxT, unveiled its sub-second zero-knowledge (ZK) prover stack called Proof of SQL, which had previously been accessible only to a select group of SxT customers during an alpha release in August. ZK provers have become essential due to the increasing demand for privacy in cryptographic technology. These ZK models allow users to verify the validity of data or transactions without revealing any additional information.
Prominent web3 developers, including Vitalik Buterin from Ethereum, have emphasized the importance of ZK stacks in creating secure decentralized finance ecosystems. This technology is crucial for ensuring safe interactions on the blockchain for smart contract protocols and users, although it has been known to slow down execution at times.
SxT co-founder and head of research, Jay White, PhD, stated that the Proof of SQL program was developed so that smart contracts and AI agents could inquire about a chain’s activity and off-chain data, receiving trustworthy SQL query results on-chain instantly during a transaction without the need for lengthy proof times.
The company claims that its Proof of SQL offers a more optimized processing architecture for large-scale operations compared to traditional zk-Virtual Machines and co-processors. According to SxT and White, the ZK prover successfully executed queries for tables with over 100,000 rows in less than a second on a single GPU unit. This model can be integrated into zkVMs on blockchains like Ethereum (ETH) to achieve faster speeds and handle more complex tasks.
For further information, you may want to read about how zero knowledge proof enhances data security and privacy in decentralized systems.