Devnet is Live

Today, Fermah’s Devnet goes live. 

Builders can now request access to Fermah by filling out this form.

In the rest of this blog post, I’ll explain how Fermah will alter the ZK landscape as we know it.

But First, What Is Fermah?

Fermah is the universal proof generation layer. It is optimized for cheap, fast, and reliable ZK proof generation.

Fermah functions as a marketplace, where the supply side consists of machines such as GPUs and FPGAs. Initially, the supply side is bootstrapped by EigenLayer Operators. 

On the demand side, Fermah is architected to support all proof systems. This includes zkVMs, zkEVMs, Groth16, and all other proof systems. In simpler terms, Fermah can generate proofs for any instance in which ZK is used.

The demand and supply sides are aligned with the Fermah Matchmaker.

What Does Fermah Bring to the Table?

Fermah addresses the key challenges in zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) generation:

• The complexity of spinning up a prover network: Generating ZKPs requires having provers with expensive, powerful hardware. Sourcing, deploying, and maintaining this infrastructure is challenging. Fermah simplifies this process for developers, abstracting away the complexity of spinning up a custom prover network.
• Optimized mechanism design: Arguably, the trickiest aspect of designing an effective prover network is the required mechanism design. Fermah’s mechanism design is optimized for the needs of our customers. The Fermah Matchmaker efficiently aligns proof seekers with our extensive network of proof system deployers (operators), ensuring efficient proof generation and verification.
• Resource underutilization and high costs: Today, most applications that generate ZKPs use hardware that remains idle for the vast majority of the time. This suboptimal allocation of resources inflates costs for users. Fermah's marketplace approach ensures efficient utilization, reducing costs for users.
• Economies of scale: By aggregating demand from various sources, Fermah allows suppliers to leverage economies of scale, further reducing costs and expanding the practical design space for ZK technology.
• Universal compatibility: Fermah is credibly neutral and architected to support all proof systems, allowing developers to work with their preferred proof system for the product they’re building.

And the cherry on top is that Fermah is exceedingly simple to use.

Out-of-the-Box Support

Fermah is designed to accommodate any proving system, and we're launching with immediate support for some of the most popular ones:

• Jolt by a16z
• Groth16 by Jens Groth
• The RISC Zero zkVM
• Valida by Lita
• Stwo by Starkware
• SP1 by Succinct Labs

Very soon, we will also be offering support for:

• The Nexus 2.0 zkVM
• Stone by Starkware
• The Aztec Proof System 

This initial support allows developers to quickly integrate these systems and leverage Fermah's capabilities without additional setup. Our plan is to support all major proving systems.

What to Expect From Devnet

On Devnet, you will experience seamless, end-to-end proof generation. More specifically, you’ll be able to: 

• Deploy any proof system: Easily set up your chosen proof system by providing a prover image, verifier image, and associated setup parameters.
• Request proofs: Submit requests for proofs to Fermah’s RPC server. Once a proof is generated, it is verified within the network and sent back to the proof seeker or another designated endpoint.
• Track proof generation: Query Fermah's RPC server to monitor the status of proof computation. This lets you track if your proof is:
  • Accepted: The proof request has been received and will be assigned to a prover.
  • Assigned: A prover is currently computing the proof request.
  • Proven: The proof has been computed and verified. Once the proof reaches this status, it is available for download.

If you want to dig deeper, you can learn about our network design and look into instructions for integrating new proof systems in our docs. 

Who Can Participate in Devnet?

If you are leveraging ZKPs in any form, on any chain, you can use Fermah. Some use cases for which Fermah could be a gamechanger are:

• Rollups
• Bridges
• ZK coprocessors
• ZKML projects
• zkFHE projects
• Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) providers
• AI projects that are doing heavy computations offchain, but want to verify validity onchain. 

Fermah allows you to abstract away the complexity of generating proofs so you can focus on your core business.

What’s Coming Next?

The launch of Devnet is just the beginning. 

We're actively working on integrations with various partners to improve the UX for Fermah users. In the coming weeks and months, you can expect announcements about:

• Support for additional proving systems and zkVMs: to ensure frictionless support for all instances in which ZKPs are used. 
• Integrations with major ZK projects: to demonstrate the impact that our universal proof generation layer can have for ZK projects.
• New features: to create a state-of-the-art UX for you.
• Testnet and Mainnet: they’ll be coming sooner than you think.

And finally, there will be a few Easter eggs along the way 🤫

Take It for a Spin!

If you’re interested, fill out this form and our team will reach out and get you set up. 

We will spin up a Telegram chat with your team to ensure you always have a direct line of communication with our team. 

In the meantime, you can learn more by exploring our docs.

We look forward to working with you!

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