Microsoft Research introduces Magnetar, a zero-knowledge virtual machine for general programs

Microsoft Research introduces Magnetar, a zero-knowledge virtual machine that proves the execution of programs written in Rust, Go, or C. The company says Magnetar runs 10 to 39 times faster on average than the fastest comparable zkVMs on the same machine, and that its security rests only on standard hash functions such as SHA-256 or SHA-3. Proofs verify in about 12 milliseconds.

Magnetar proves programs compiled to RISC-V, an open processor architecture that Microsoft Research says has mature compilers for every mainstream language.