Microsoft Research presents Magnetar for proof-based general-purpose computing
Proof-based general-purpose computing with Magnetar
- Who
- Microsoft Research
- What
- introduces Magnetar, a general-purpose zero-knowledge virtual machine for proving program execution
- Quote
Magnetar is a zero-knowledge virtual machine, or zkVM, and it makes major progress on all three challenges at once.
What happened
Microsoft Research presents Magnetar, a zero-knowledge virtual machine that proves RISC-V program execution using security based only on standard hash functions. It supports programs written in Rust, Go, or C without requiring developers to rewrite them as cryptographic circuits. Across 15 benchmark programs, Microsoft reports average speeds 10 to 39 times faster than the fastest existing comparable zkVMs on the same machine, with proofs verified in about 12 milliseconds.
Why it matters
The benchmark comparisons connect proving speed with general-purpose execution and standard hash functions, clarifying the tradeoffs that have limited broader adoption of verifiable computing.
The story so far
Microsoft Research introduced Magnetar, a zero-knowledge virtual machine that proves RISC-V program execution, and reported average speeds 10 to 39 times faster than the fastest existing comparable zkVMs across 15 benchmark programs run on the same machine. Magnetar supports programs written in Rust, Go, or C without requiring developers to rewrite them as cryptographic circuits. Its security relies only on standard hash functions. Microsoft reported that proofs could be verified in about 12 milliseconds.
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