QuickBreakdown
The Brevis Network announced that its Pico Prism zero-knowledge Virtual Machine (zkVM) has achieved a 99.6% proving coverage.
This breakthrough performance reduces the necessary GPU hardware cost for real-time proving by 50%
Pico Prism’s advancement moves Ethereum’s verification model from re-execution to a more efficient, single-time verification.
Brevis, a verifiable computing platform, has announced a significant breakthrough with its Pico Prism zero-knowledge Virtual Machine (zkVM), achieving near-total real-time proving coverage for current Ethereum mainnet blocks. The company stated that Pico Prism achieved 99.6% proving coverage in under 12 seconds and 96.8% coverage in under 10 seconds across 45 million gas blocks. This performance leap is a key step toward realizing the goal of a Layer 1 zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM).
The performance improvement substantially reduces the economic barrier to entry, eliminating the need for expensive, high-end hardware. The advancement reduces the GPU hardware costs by 50%, making real-time processing more economically viable and accessible for widespread deployment, even on consumer-grade hardware. This shift is critical because it supports Ethereum’s transition to a system in which all verification is handled through cryptographic proofs.
Cost reduction and scalability enhancement
The Pico Prism’s success stems from a complete architectural redesign that transitions from single-machine proving to distributed multi-GPU clusters. By breaking the proof process into parallel tasks, the modular design leverages the power of multi-GPU clusters, shifting computation-heavy workloads to Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). This modular approach is designed to adapt to future needs, combining a general-purpose zkVM with a data coprocessor to handle various application scenarios.
By enabling a single prover to generate a mathematical proof that all nodes can verify in milliseconds, Brevis fundamentally changes the validation process. This replaces the current model, where hundreds of thousands of validators must re-execute identical transactions, significantly increasing transaction throughput and lowering the barrier for home stakers. This innovation is already being utilized by applications such as PancakeSwap’s advanced trading hooks and Frax’s cross-chain verification systems.
Meanwhile, Starknet’s v0.14.0 upgrade, after community approval, enhanced the decentralisation, speed, and performance of the Ethereum Layer 2. Key features included adopting Tendermint for decentralised sequencing for better fault tolerance and censorship resistance, introducing subsecond pre-confirmations, and implementing an EIP-1559 fee market to stabilise gas prices by decoupling them from Ethereum’s volatility. This release advanced Starknet towards complete decentralization of the sequencer as a top scaling solution.
