Introducing SRT: Real-Time Proving Engine for Any zkVM

The modular real-time proving engine to accelerate zkVMs into the next era of Ethereum scalability.

Summary

Snarkify introduces SRT, a modular proving engine built to deliver real-time performance for any zkVM. SRT integrates as a drop-in backend component and provides orders of magnitude improvement in proving speed and cost, with no changes required to the zkVM architecture or protocol logic. The first SRT release goes live this June with a prioritized launch partner, proving every Ethereum block in under 12 seconds.

Slow ZK Does Not Cook

zkVMs are the foundation of Ethereum’s long-term vision. They are to enable Ethereum’s full-stack SNARKification, while also providing architectural simplicity and developer-friendly tooling. Today, zkVMs remain the most credible path for Ethereum to scale effectively as it moves toward the Beam chain and related improvements in both the consensus and execution layers.

But despite this strategic position, zkVMs are still constrained by proof generation performance. Latency and cost continue to dominate system overhead. The time and compute required to generate proofs impose hard limits on ZK chains’ finality and UX. These ceilings define the practical scope of what zkVMs can deliver.

Today, 21 zkVM teams are actively working to raise their proving baseline. Each team is investing significant engineering effort into in-house performance optimization, pulling resources from areas that drive adoption: critical features, developer experience, and runtime security. In fact, proving performance remains the constraint that keeps ZK from reaching full heat.

What Is SRT

SRT (Snarkify Real-Time) is a modular, real-time proving engine purpose-built to accelerate zkVMs. It delivers high-performance, low-latency proof generation without requiring changes to zkVM architecture or protocol logic. Designed as a backend component, SRT integrates directly into existing stacks, enabling real-time proving with no engineering overhead.

In a nutshell, SRT provides:

  • zkVM-agnostic design built to accelerate any zkVM to real-time proving.
  • GPU-native architecture tuned for proving zkVM execution.
  • Drop-in integration with no changes to zkVM protocol.

At its core, SRT is the performance layer that resolves proving constraints limiting zkVMs. SRT is built specifically for zkVM execution, using GPU-native architecture to accelerate both trace generation and proof construction. The result is a 10-100x improvement depending on the specific zkVM design.

Snarkify has spent the last three years building at the edge of what’s possible in ZK performance, with a clear goal: to solve proof generation performance at the system level. With SRT, we’re proud to introduce the missing piece in ZK infrastructure that breaks the performance bottleneck and frees zkVM teams to build what the ecosystem needs next.

Why real-time proving matters?

Real-time proving defines the next phase of ZK infrastructure. It sets the baseline where blockchains’ execution can be verified as it happens. zkVMs have made verifiable computations accessible for developers. Real-time proving brings ZK into production at scale.

With SRT integrated, zkVM teams can deliver fast and efficient proof generation as part of their core stack. SRT will take care of proving performance, allowing teams to focus on what drives adoption: new features, developer experience, and protocol resilience. Stronger stacks will provide chains with real-time settlement and the capabilities to support a new era of real-world applications built on verifiable compute.

The result is a foundation for developers to build verifiable applications without performance limits. This is what ZK was designed to enable.

Real-Time Proving for Ethereum this Joon™️

The long-term goal for zero-knowledge infrastructure is 100% of compute verified in real time. The near-term milestone is proving every Ethereum block within the 12-second slot time. This is the threshold where zkVMs can contribute directly to Ethereum’s shift toward protocol-level verifiability.

In June, SRT will unlock this milestone by integrating with a prioritized launch partner. The release targets the EthProofs challenge and establishes a new benchmark for proving performance. From there, the goal is to extend this capability to other zkVM teams advancing verifiable compute. Further SRT rollouts will follow as we prioritize integrations across the rest of the stacks.

What’s Next

We are dedicated to delivering real-time proving for Ethereum with SRT this June. In the weeks ahead, we’ll announce our first launch partners bringing real-time proving into their stacks with SRT.

We’ll speak more about SRT and our roadmap during EthProofs Call #2 on May 23. If you're curious about how SRT works or want to talk through what real-time proving could look like for your application, feel free to get in touch.