Zenith Zero
A ZK-proven Ethereum chain where every state transition is verified by a RISC Zero zero-knowledge proof. Full EVM execution via reth, block artifacts encoded as DAG-CBOR and published to IPFS, governance-controlled proof eras for upgradeable verification without hard forks.
How It Works
A consensus driver produces blocks on a 12-second slot schedule via Engine API calls to the embedded reth node — full EVM execution with EIP-1559. Each block is encoded as a DAG-CBOR artifact and published to IPFS. The prover then replays the block's state transition inside the RISC Zero zkVM, producing a cryptographic proof that execution was correct.
Anyone with the proof and the image ID can verify a state transition without re-executing it. Governance-controlled image IDs mean the verifier can be upgraded while keeping old proofs valid.
$ cargo run --bin zz0-node -- start --datadir /tmp/zz0-dev # Submit a transaction podman run --rm --network host zenith-zero-tool:dev send-tx \ --rpc-url http://localhost:9545 \ --to 0x000...0001 \ --value 1000000000000000000
Stack
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| zz0-node | reth execution + consensus driver |
| zz0-prover | RISC Zero zkVM proof generation |
| zz0-rpc | JSON-RPC frontend (port 9545) |
| zz0-explorer | Block explorer + proof visualization |
| IPFS (Kubo) | Content-addressed block artifact storage |
| PostgreSQL 17 | Chain state persistence |
~22,000 lines of Rust across 18 workspace crates. Deployed as a podman pod with systemd user units.