Category Labs Tests Monad Client With 13-Second Median Ethereum Proof Time

Category Labs has adapted its Monad execution client to generate zero-knowledge proofs for Ethereum blocks, adding a potential software implementation to Ethereum's proposed proof-based validation system.

The Monad-based program generated proofs in a median of 13 seconds per block in a test of 30 Ethereum blocks on one Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU. That was 17% less time than ziskethone, the comparison program. The median marks the midpoint of the measured proof times; it does not describe how quickly nearly every block was proved.

The Ethereum Foundation's real-time proving goal is 10 seconds or less for 99% of mainnet blocks. Category Labs' 13-second median cannot establish performance against that goal because the two figures use different measures. The 30-block test also used a single GPU and did not involve a completed Ethproofs client.

Another test, covering 200 Ethereum blocks, gave the Monad-based program a COST score 26% lower than ziskethone v1.13.0. COST estimates the workload involved in producing proofs. It is neither a measured dollar expense nor the elapsed time between a block becoming available and the completion of its proof. A lower COST score alone cannot establish whether proofs meet the Foundation's 10-second target.

Category Labs used an automated optimization process to produce more than 300 incremental changes to the program. Those changes reduced its COST score by 57% from the initial implementation, and engineers subsequently reviewed the proposed changes. The 57% reduction compares versions of the Monad-based program; the 26% figure compares it with ziskethone.

Ethereum's proposed verification approach would allow validators to check a cryptographic proof that a block was executed correctly instead of repeating every transaction. Ethereum is still researching this approach, and production clients do not yet use it. It relies on guest programs, software that executes blocks inside proving systems.

Ethproofs, an Ethereum Foundation program, tracks those guest programs and seeks diversity among them to reduce reliance on one implementation. The Monad-based software is intended to join that set of programs, but its current benchmarks describe a guest program rather than a completed integration.

Category Labs is continuing work on a full client implementation for Ethproofs.