What is NovaNet

NovaNet: A Peer-to-Peer Decentralized Prover Network

NovaNet is a peer-to-peer decentralized prover network that builds upon the principles of non-uniform incremental verifiable computation (NIVC) introduced by the SuperNova proving scheme. This foundation enables a highly portable and customizable zero-knowledge (zk) virtual machine and opcode-based prover framework.

Why NIVC?

NIVC offers exceptional memory efficiency, allowing NovaNet provers to operate across a wide range of devices. This inclusivity means that virtually anyone can participate in the network as a prover, whether on high-end servers, consumer laptops, or lightweight embedded systems.

By supporting diverse device types, NovaNet democratizes access to zero-knowledge proving. Participants can potentially earn tokens while playing zkGames, interacting with browser-based apps, or contributing as specialized provers. This ethos of "ZK's e pluribus unum" encourages both casual users and expert contributors to join the ecosystem. Researchers, in particular, can design novel proving schemes and be rewarded for their adoption in real-world applications.

First Implementation: WASM, with Extensibility in Mind

NovaNet's initial implementation targets WebAssembly (WASM) executables, chosen for its unparalleled portability. WASM runs seamlessly across browsers, servers, blockchains, and many other environments, making it an ideal starting point.

However, NovaNet's vision extends far beyond WASM. The network's modular design could support other virtual machines (e.g., RISC-V) or even bespoke architectures in the future. Additionally, NovaNet integrates specialized opcodes for advanced use cases such as zero-knowledge machine learning (zkML), integration with other zk virtual machines (e.g., JOLT), and any domain where tailored circuits can outperform general-purpose zkVMs.

*Open-sourced non-audited version of zkEngine is here (expect breaking changes), recent changes implemented Nebula NIVC : https://github.com/ICME-Lab/zkEngine_dev/tree/main

Decentralized Proving with NovaNet: Privacy, Flexibility, and Scalability

Many existing and emerging prover services rely on centralized prover stacks. The idea behind this approach is that centralized provers enable "proof racing," where competition drives optimal speed. However, this model often comes with significant trade-offs, particularly for privacy-preserving and locally executed proofs.

When you send data to a non-local prover, you inherently lose privacy—it’s as simple as that. NovaNet takes a different path. By leveraging proof-carrying data (PCD), a generalization of incremental verifiable computation (IVC), NovaNet enables parallelization and introduces game-theoretic optimizations. These optimizations incentivize participants while achieving faster proving speeds in various settings. Moreover with NIVC we achieve an efficient aggregation mechanism for client-side privacy preserving ZKP.

Flexibility for Developers

NovaNet empowers developers to host verifiers wherever they prefer—on Ethereum, other blockchains, or even cloud servers. You have the freedom to choose the infrastructure that best fits your use case.

Rather than building a NovaNet-specific zk-L1, we opted for a cross-chain token layer. Core components of NovaNet are designed to work across multiple chains, with specific integrations to be announced. Orchestration smart contracts manage key functions such as tokenomics, escrow, and validators. These contracts, while largely abstracted away from application developers, are fully on-chain and transparent for anyone to inspect.

Who Should Use NovaNet?

NovaNet's testnet is open as of late 2024. We are actively collaborating with partners to ensure a robust balance of demand- and supply-side participants during the testnet phase. This will allow for comprehensive testing and optimization of the network. Reach out if interested!

NovaNet opens up diverse use cases, including:

• zk-Games: Gamers could act as provers, earning tokens or in-game rewards while enabling features like fog-of-war or cheat prevention.

• Consumer apps: Many web3 consumer apps would benefit from privacy. Some simple examples are, login services (Basenames), escrow, proof of reserves, proof of NFT ownership (without doxing account), etc.

• DePin: Memory efficient ZK is vital for verifiaiblity in large scale DePin networks. Most ZKP are created to scale blockchains. This makes them poor choices for constrainted devices. At NovaNet out north star is portability.

• WASM-Compatible Applications: Teams running workloads in WASM but lacking the expertise or resources to develop a dedicated zkFramework or learn a DSL (e.g., Circom) are ideal candidates for the testnet.

If you're a Rust developer, NovaNet supports your workflows out-of-the-box. Simply compile your code into WASM, and the network will generate cryptographic proofs that attest to correct execution. These proofs can be verified anywhere. Developers using any of the 30+ languages supporting WASM can also use NovaNet with minimal to no modifications.

Open Source for Transparency and Collaboration

Most of NovaNet’s code will be open-sourced shortly after the testnet launch. Open-sourcing serves multiple purposes: enabling peer review, facilitating auditing, and inviting community contributions to optimize the framework for diverse use cases.

Let’s work together to build the most open and user-friendly zero-knowledge proof framework. Join us in shaping the future of decentralized proving with NovaNet!