ZkSync Unveils New STARK Powered Proof System Boojum

• zkSync has launched Boojum, a new proof system powered by Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge (STARK).
• The Boojum upgrade will increase the scaling solution’s current throughput of 100 transactions per second.
• The upgrade will also enhance decentralization by enabling a wider range of Boojum provers to participate.

zkSync, the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution that uses zero-knowledge rollups, has unveiled a new upgrade called Boojum. Boojum is a proof system based on zkSync’s Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge (STARK) that aims to increase the scaling solution’s throughput and enhance its decentralization.

zkSync took to Twitter earlier today to announce the launch of the Boojum upgrade. According to zkSync, Boojum is a rust-based cryptographic library, which the scaling solution will use to implement the upgraded version of the zero-knowledge circuits for zkSync Era and the ZK Stack. The upgrade’s name was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Hunting of the Snark.”

The Boojum upgrade will not cause any user disruptions since zkSync Era was designed in order to accommodate cryptographic upgrades without a regenesis. The upgrade is now live on the mainnet and is already generating and verifying shadow proofs with real production data. Its initial performance will allow the zkSync team to test the system ahead of a full migration.

According to zkSync Era, the SNARK-based proof system will not scale to the volume that they wish to reach for hyperchains. The Boojum upgrade will enhance the performance of the sequencer, which currently processes more than 100 transactions per second.

“The current version of the proof system was performant enough for the zkEVM to be built, and process millions of transactions in just a few months, but with Boojum we can do even better!” zkSync stated in a blog post.

In addition to enhancing performance, the Boojum upgrade will also reduce the scaling solution’s reliance on hardware and similar requirements in the interest of decentralization. This is in line with zkSync’s long-term goal of enabling user-powered decentralized proof generation.