zkDaily - 2026-03-18

零知识证明 zkDaily

ZKP Frontier Tracker 🎯

Wed

03.18

2026

powdr-wasm

OSS

https://x.com/powdr_labs/status/2033937297314402504

powdr labs crush ISA WASI

@powdr_labs has open-sourced powdr-wasm, an optimized zkVM for WASM built on @openvm_org and the crush ISA, with early benchmarks showing 1.5x fewer trace cells and faster proof times compared to RISC-V (OpenVM), and support for Go guests via WASI.

Notes

powdr-wasm is a zkVM optimized for WASM, built on OpenVM and the crush ISA
Early benchmarks show 1.5x fewer trace cells and faster proof times vs. RISC-V (OpenVM)
Supports Go guests via WASI, expanding zkVM use cases
Aims to improve performance and efficiency of zkVM in WASM environments
Open-source release facilitates community involvement and further optimization
Combines WASM and ZKP technologies to advance zero-knowledge proofs in WebAssembly ecosystems

Collected by @icerdesign

零知识证明 zkDaily

Q&A Deep Dive 💬

Wed

03.18

2026

Why use WASM instead of RISC-V?

WASM is a higher level execution format widely used in browsers and backend systems. Compared to RISC-V, it is closer to real applications and integrates more easily with languages and toolchains such as Go and WASI.

How does the crush ISA improve zkVM performance?

The crush ISA is designed for provability. It reduces the constraint cost of complex operations by expressing arithmetic and memory actions more efficiently, which lowers trace size and lookup overhead.

Where do the main performance gains of powdr-wasm over RISC-V zkVMs come from?

The gains come from a more compact execution model and ISA design. The crush ISA reduces unnecessary instruction overhead and lowers trace cells. This directly reduces polynomial constraints, sum-check cost, and overall proving time.

Prompted by @icerdesign