Ethereum ZK track is on the rise again, a comprehensive exploration of ZK network Succinct

Author: jaehaerys

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

Key points:

What is Succinct Prover Network? This is a decentralized zero-knowledge proof (ZK) generation market based on Ethereum. It aims to connect requesters who need ZK (such as Rollup, bridge, AI application) with a global network of computing power providers (Prover).

How does it work? The network uses a vApp architecture. A fast off-chain auction service manages auctions in real time, while the security and final settlement of funds are guaranteed by smart contracts on Ethereum, combining the performance of Web2 with the security of Web3.

What is the $PROVE token? The $PROVE token (ERC-20) is the economic core of the network and has three main functions:

• Payment: A unique token used to pay for proof generation fees.
• Security: Validators must post $PROVE as collateral, and the collateral may be slashed in the event of misconduct.
• Governance: Token holders vote on key protocol parameters. The initial supply is 1 billion, and its issuance rate is controlled by governance.

How does the market work? Requesters submit tasks, and attesters compete to complete them through a reverse auction, with the lowest bidder winning. This mechanism ensures competitive pricing of attestations.

What are its core advantages? (Ecosystem) Succinct has established partnerships with many major Web3 projects, solving the cold start problem by guaranteeing a large demand for network services from day one.

1. Introduction

The Web3 narrative is undergoing a major shift, with zero-knowledge technology quickly emerging as a hot topic. Once a niche academic concept, it has now gained widespread attention from developers and the market, ranking in the top three in terms of industry attention, along with AI and DeFi. This surge in relevance is driven by a clear trend: the maturation of ZK-based applications and the strategic integration of ZK proofs into the core of blockchain infrastructure.

As the ZK ecosystem expands, the need to generate computationally intensive proofs reaches a critical inflection point. To meet this need, a new layer of specialized infrastructure is needed. The Succinct Prover Network was born: an Ethereum-based protocol that builds a decentralized marketplace for generating ZK. It uses a vApp architecture that combines high performance with verifiable security. At the heart of the system is the $PROVE token, which serves as an economic engine to drive this new digital goods market through payments, security, and incentives.

This article will provide a comprehensive in-depth look at the Succinct Prover Network’s architecture, $PROVE’s core functionality and token economics, and the market dynamics of its ecosystem.

It’s no secret that the launch of the Succinct Network mainnet and the first public trading of $PROVE tokens is just around the corner, and below we’ll break down what that entails and the value it will bring to stakeholders.

2. Network Architecture

The architecture of Succinct Prover Network is an Ethereum-based vApp. This model aims to provide users with the high-performance experience of traditional web applications while retaining the security and trust guarantees of decentralized protocols.

Separation of execution and settlement

The core of the vApp architecture is the separation of execution and settlement, which is similar to the design pattern of Layer 2 sequencers.

• Off-chain execution is handled by a high-performance service that manages the auction process, proof distribution, and user interactions in real time. This enables users to submit requests and receive updates without worrying about delays in block confirmations.
• On-chain settlement is performed on the Ethereum mainnet, which uses ZK to regularly verify the correctness of the network status and off-chain operations.

This hybrid approach ensures user funds are always secured by the Ethereum contract and directly accessible, while market operations remain fast and efficient.

Key Components

The network consists of two main components:

• Off-chain Auction Service: This is the main off-chain entity responsible for matching user requests with attesters. It receives attestation requests, collects bids, runs auctions, and distributes work. Users interact with this service directly through RPC calls, giving them a real-time experience.
• On-chain settlement contracts: A set of smart contracts deployed on Ethereum, including SuccinctVApp.sol, SuccinctStaking.sol and SuccinctGovernor.sol, act as trust anchors for the network. These contracts are responsible for settling the state roots and ZK proofs submitted periodically by auctioneers, thereby ensuring the integrity of the network.

Verifiable Database

To ensure the integrity of off-chain operations, the auction service is built on a verifiable database. This backend architecture allows anyone to independently verify all balance updates and proof fulfillment. It contains:

• A database that stores user balances, pending requests, and fulfillment status. The database supports read and write operations.
• An SP1-based prover that reads the database and computes a ZK proof of the new state of the network. This proof verifies all state transitions, such as balance updates and proof assignments, and is then settled on Ethereum for public verification.

3. $PROVE Token

The $PROVE token is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 utility token and is the economic lifeblood of the Succinct Prover Network. It is designed to have three main functions: facilitating payments, ensuring network security, and aligning the interests of all participants.

Core Practicality

The utility of this token is reflected in many aspects:

• Payment: $PROVE is the only payment token in the network. If a requester wants their computation to be proven, they must pay the prover a corresponding fee, which is paid in $PROVE. This creates a direct and continuous transaction demand for the token.
• Security: The network is secured through staking. Provers must stake $PROVE to participate in the auction, ensuring they act honestly. If a prover acts maliciously or misses a deadline, part of their stake will be forfeited.
• Incentives: $PROVE is used to incentivize provers to invest in infrastructure and continue to offer competitive prices.

Token Supply and Issuance

$PROVE will have an initial supply of 1 billion, but there is no fixed cap as the protocol includes a mechanism for ongoing token issuance. The rate of new issuance is not fixed, but a parameter controlled by the network's decentralized governance system, allowing the community to dynamically adjust incentives as the network grows.

Pledge and entrustment

To ensure economic security, any user can stake $PROVE. The system supports two main methods:

• Prover Staking: Provers stake $PROVE to be eligible to participate in auctions and execute proof requests.
• Delegation: Any $PROVE holder can delegate their tokens to a prover of their choice. This allows them to contribute to the security of the network and earn a portion of the fees charged by the chosen prover without having to run any hardware themselves. A delegator can only delegate to one prover at a time.

When an attestation request is successfully executed, the fees paid by the requester and the tokens issued by the network will be distributed between the winning attestor, its delegators, and the protocol treasury. For example, a potential distribution scheme could be: the winning attestor receives most of the fees, the delegators receive a portion of the fees for providing security, and the protocol collects a small amount of network fees as treasury. Network issuance will be distributed proportionally to all stakers (including attestors and delegators).

Governance

$PROVE token holders are the ultimate governance of the protocol and have the power to vote on key network parameters. This includes setting network fees, adjusting staking requirements, and deciding the form of the auction mechanism.

4. Auctions and Requests

Succinct Prover Network uses a carefully designed market structure to promote price discovery and assign proof generation tasks to the most efficient provers. The system is built to be flexible and can meet a wide range of user needs through different service models.

Auction Mechanism

The network uses real-time bidding to allocate requests. This auction mechanism enables efficient price discovery with minimal latency and is paid for using $PROVE tokens.

• Initial version: The first version of the network uses a simple reverse auction to assign attestation requests to the attestor with the lowest bid.
• Future evolution: Over time, the governance mechanism could transition to a “proof-of-contest” model, which aims to distribute rewards to a wider group of provers, thereby increasing decentralization.

The entire auction process is handled by an off-chain auction service, but anyone can independently verify the results using zero-knowledge proofs that are periodically published on-chain.

User Experience

The process for requesting and executing a certification is designed to be simple and secure.

• For Requesters: Users (such as ZK Rollup operators) can easily request a proof by first transferring $PROVE to the auctioneer to pay the fee. They then send a proof request via an RPC call, specifying the program to be proved, the deadline, and the maximum fee they are willing to pay. The off-chain auctioneer will match this request with the qualified prover with the lowest price. Once the proof is completed and submitted, the fee will be transferred and the entire transaction will be settled on Ethereum with a single ZK proof, enabling the requester to verify that it was processed correctly.
• For Provers: Provers compete for the right to execute requests. To qualify for a particular auction, a Prover's $PROVE stake must meet a minimum requirement set by the Requester (e.g., a request might require 50 $PROVE staked). Qualified Provers submit bids to the Auctioneer. The Prover with the lowest bid wins the auction and gets the attestation, which they must complete by a set deadline. If successful, they receive payment in the form of $PROVE. If they fail to submit their attestation on time, their stake is slashed.

Minimum staking amount: 1,000 $PROVE (testnet; mainnet pending)

Service Model

The network offers flexibility to users through two different service models:

• On-demand requests: Users can send requests to the network on demand, which enter a public auction open to all online attesters. This is ideal for users seeking the most competitive prices or for applications that occasionally see large volumes of demand.
• Off-chain booking: For users who need stronger reliability guarantees or high-frequency, large-scale needs, the network supports off-chain service agreements (SLAs) with specific attesters. These agreements can whitelist approved attesters and make them exclusive bidders. Due to the long-term nature of the agreement, the price may be more favorable.

5. Market dynamics and ecosystem

A successful cryptoeconomic system requires not only strong technology, but also a vibrant ecosystem of participants and a clear strategy to generate network effects. The $PROVE token is at the heart of an economic system designed to coordinate the actions of rational, independent participants in a thriving market.

Two-Sided Market

The network establishes a classic two-sided market, which is a common pattern in the DePIN field. In this case, the coordinated infrastructure is the computing hardware (GPU, FPGA, ASIC) required to generate ZK. The two parties are:

• Demand side (Requesters): This group consists of blockchain protocols, applications, and developers that need ZK to conduct business. These requesters create organic demand for network services and serve as the main source of revenue flowing into the ecosystem in the form of $PROVE payments.
• Supply Side (Provers): This group consists of individuals and professional entities that own and operate the computational hardware required to generate ZK. They invest in capital-intensive infrastructure to compete to provide services and earn fees and network rewards denominated in $PROVE.

Ecosystem protection

One of the biggest challenges for emerging markets is the “cold start” problem: without demand, attesters will not join; without a reliable supply of attesters, requesters will not join. Succinct Labs solves this problem by focusing on ensuring market demand before the mainnet launch.

The project has established partnerships with many leading projects in the Web3 field, ensuring immediate and large demand from day one.

This move reduces the economic risk for provers and ensures that $PROVE tokens have instant transaction speeds from the beginning, supporting the entire economic model.

Ultimately, the Succinct Prover Network is based on a simple premise: the future of computation is verifiable. The $PROVE token is the key mechanism to achieve this future, transforming cryptographic proofs from a niche technology to a liquid digital commodity that is accessible to everyone.

Related reading: The King of ZKVM? Analysis of Succinct, which raised $55 million, and a tutorial on how to participate