StarkWare's S-two Prover Speeds Up ZK Proofs by 3900% on Everyday Devices

StarkWare, a leading blockchain technology company, has introduced its latest innovation, the Stark Two (S-two) prover. This new development enables users to generate cryptographic proofs directly on their everyday devices, such as phones, laptops, and browsers. This advancement is significant as it allows users to create zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs without relying on servers or cloud infrastructure, thereby enhancing privacy and speeding up applications across the internet.
Eli Ben-Sasson, StarkWare's co-founder and CEO, highlighted the potential of S-two, stating that it will bring STARK proving to everyday devices and open the door for new real-world use cases. The ZK prover is currently available in public alpha and is set to be integrated with Starknet, StarkWare's Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, later this year.
Benchmark tests conducted by StarkWare revealed that the S-two ZK prover is 39 times faster than previous solutions. This performance leap enables smoother experiences in privacy-enhancing applications. The upgrade supports various use cases, including private transactions, ZK-based identity, and verifiable artificial intelligence. S-two is designed to run on CPUs, GPUs, and will soon be compatible with browsers, making it highly versatile.
Ben-Sasson described the S-two prover as a "lightsaber in your pocket," emphasizing its accessibility and ease of use. Developers can now build with S-two, and its alpha release supports various hardware targets. Several ZK ecosystem participants, including Kakarot, Nexus, ZAN, and AntChain OpenLabs, have already adopted the technology. Kakarot uses S-two to generate Ethereum block proofs more efficiently, while Nexus is standardizing RISC-V traces to align with S-two’s architecture. ZAN and AntChain OpenLabs are adding GPU acceleration to further enhance the prover’s performance.
Oren Katz, StarkWare's chief operating officer, noted that S-two marks a shift in how ZK-proofs are used in daily lives. Generating validity proofs directly on devices allows for privacy-preserving features in messaging, payments, and digital identity. For example, users can prove a payment was valid without revealing their balance or verify identity without exposing personal details. Katz also mentioned that salary payments could be made onchain with full transparency and no exposure of sensitive information, dubbing the development a significant step toward bringing zero-knowledge technology into the mainstream.
Beyond privacy, local proof generation unlocks use cases in other industries. Katz explained that gamers could play offline and later generate cryptographic proof of their achievements. Operators could run logic on their own servers and generate a proof that it was executed correctly, rather than running all logic onchain to prove integrity.
The launch of StarkWare’s upgraded ZK prover follows Ethereum’s push for better privacy. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a roadmap addressing privacy enhancements for wallets, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and infrastructure. Buterin advocated for implementing privacy-enhancing norms and features across the Ethereum ecosystem, including adding privacy tools in ETH wallets.

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