what's Jolt?
Jolt is an open-source zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) for RISC-V programs, developed by a16z crypto. It proves arbitrary computations using a novel SNARK design based on the sum-check protocol and lookup arguments like Lasso, prioritizing simplicity, auditability, and extensibility. Developers can prove standard LLVM-compiled programs without SNARK expertise, supporting RV64IMAC instructions via Rust-defined primitives. Techniques such as one-hot addressing, batch evaluation, and "Just One Lookup Table" enable efficient memory checking and proof generation. Performance exceeds prior zkVMs (e.g., 2x-6x faster in benchmarks), with GPU acceleration (e.g., CUDA port for LayerZero's Zero chain achieving 1.6 GHz proving). Ongoing upgrades include Binius commitments and memory optimizations like Twist and Shout. Transparent and extensible, Jolt advances general-purpose zk proving for scalable blockchains.
a16z crypto's RISC-V zkVM powers LayerZero's Zero with GPU-accelerated SNARK-proving infrastructure, called "Jolt Pro".
Achieves approximately 1.6 billion 64-bit RISC-V cycles proved per second on 64 GPUs.