Protocol papers
Confidential compute papers.
Confidentiality of state is not confidentiality against the party who is supposed to receive the output.
How to read this shelf
Each card opens a study. The study is a reading of a public paper, not the paper and not a description of today's network. Status is a design paper unless the record says historical or failure case.
How to read this page
Research status is named on the page. Primary sources are linked. This is a mechanism and operating note, not investment suitability, legal advice, a security guarantee or an implementation certificate.
Secret Network · 2015 · Design paper
Enigma: Decentralized Computation Platform with Guaranteed Privacy
The 2015 Enigma paper from MIT: private contracts executed over secret-shared data, so nodes compute without seeing the raw inputs. Secret Network is a later project in this lineage, using different machinery. This page is about the Enigma paper, which the historic library does not hold.
Oasis · 2019 · Design paper
Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contracts
The Ekiden paper: smart contracts that execute inside trusted hardware, with the ledger checking attestations rather than re-executing the private code. Oasis Network is the later production system in this line. The paper is the academic statement of the approach.
RISC Zero · 2022 · Design paper
RISC Zero zkVM: proving RISC-V execution
RISC Zero publishes a zkVM that proves a RISC-V program ran, so a contract can verify a receipt instead of re-running the program.
SP1 · 2024 · Design paper
SP1: a zkVM for RISC-V programs
SP1 publishes a zkVM that proves RISC-V execution, with a receipt a Groth16 or PLONK wrapper can compress for a settlement contract.
Jolt zkVM · 2023 · Design paper
Jolt: lookups for a virtual machine
Jolt proposes proving a virtual machine with lookups rather than by arithmetising every instruction into a bespoke constraint system.
Plonky2 · 2022 · Design paper
Plonky2: a recursive SNARK stack
Plonky2 publishes a SNARK aimed at fast recursion: a proof can verify other proofs, which is the property a zkEVM uses to fold a large trace.
Noir language · 2022 · Design paper
Noir: a language that compiles to a constraint system
Noir publishes a language for writing programs that compile to constraints a proving backend can prove. The language is not the backend.
Secret Network · 2020 · Design paper
Secret Network: contracts with encrypted state on a known validator set
Secret Network publishes contracts whose state is encrypted, with a validator set that can compute on that state inside a trusted execution environment.
Oasis protocol · 2020 · Design paper
Oasis: confidential ParaTimes beside a consensus layer
Oasis publishes a consensus layer and separate ParaTimes, some of which claim confidential execution. The confidential claim lives in the ParaTime, not in every transaction on the consensus layer.
Phala · 2021 · Design paper
Phala: off-chain workers with on-chain attestation
Phala publishes workers that execute off the consensus path and post attestations so a contract can check which program ran inside which hardware.
Plonky3 · 2023 · Design paper
Plonky3: a toolkit of proof-system components
Plonky3 publishes components, fields, hashes, and AIR machinery, rather than one circuit. A project that says it uses Plonky3 has named a toolkit, not a statement.
Lasso lookups · 2022 · Design paper
Lasso: lookup arguments for large tables
Lasso proposes lookup arguments that stay cheap even when the table is far larger than the number of lookups, which is the regime a virtual machine needs.
Redshift · 2019 · Design paper
Redshift: a transparent SNARK with a universal setup
Redshift proposes a SNARK with a universal and updatable setup, in the transparent-setup line, aimed at proving general circuits without a fresh ceremony per circuit.