Icicle Snark Installation and Usage Guide

Overview

The Icicle Snark implementation in this repository provides efficient proof generation using both CUDA, CPU backends. This guide covers installation, execution, and integration into your own Rust or other projects.

For a deeper dive into performance benchmarks and optimizations, check out our blog post: ICICLE-Snark: The Fastest Groth16 Implementation in the World

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Installation

1. Download the Release Binaries

• Download the latest v3.x release binaries from the ICICLE Releases.

2. Install the Binaries

• Extract the downloaded binaries to a directory of your choice.

3. Set the Installation Path

• Define the environment variable ICICLE_BACKEND_INSTALL_DIR to point to the extracted binary directory:

export ICICLE_BACKEND_INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/icicle-binaries

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Running Icicle-Snark in Worker Mode

To execute a proof, specify the paths for the witness file, zkey file, and output paths for the proof and public JSONs.

Example Usage:

cargo run --release

prove --witness ./witness.wtns --zkey ./circuit.zkey --proof ./proof.json --public ./public.json --device CUDA
prove --witness ./witness.wtns --zkey ./circuit.zkey --proof ./proof.json --public ./public.json --device CPU

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Integrating with Rust Projects

You can integrate Icicle Snark into your Rust project using the provided icicle_snark library.

First add it as dependency

cargo add icicle-snark

or add the following to your Cargo.toml

[dependencies]
icicle-snark = { git = "https://github.com/ingonyama-zk/icicle-snark" }

Then you can use it directly in your code

use icicle_snark::{groth16_prove, CacheManager};

fn main() {
    let mut cache_manager = CacheManager::new();

    let witness = "./witness.wtns".to_string();
    let zkey = "./circuit_final.zkey".to_string();
    let proof = "./proof.json".to_string();
    let public = "./public.json".to_string();
    let device = "CUDA"; //CPU

    for _ in 0..10 {
        groth16_prove(&witness, &zkey, &proof, &public, device, &mut cache_manager).unwrap();
    }   
}

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Integrating with other codebases

Navigate to examples/python folder to see example usage

Benchmarks

We benched the code on 2 different setups:

• 4080 & i9–13900K
• 4090 & Ryzen 9 9950X

We used the circuits in the MoPro’s benchmark repository to compare the proving systems.

• Complex Circuits: These circuits are for pure benchmarking purposes. It allows us to compare the performance of the provers based on a number of constraints.
• Anon Aadhaar: Anon Aadhaar is a zero-knowledge protocol that allows Aadhaar ID owners to prove their identity in a privacy preserving way.
• Aptos Keyless: Aptos Keyless lets users create self-custodial Aptos accounts with OIDC credentials (e.g., Google, Apple) instead of secret keys or mnemonics.

In production it’s more likely that a project is going to prove the same circuits. To utilize this we are using the Cache system. However the other tools we compare are CLI so they terminate after one proving. To keep things fair we provide both benchmarks with and without cache.

Reproducing the benchmarks

We have provided some sample circuits under benchmark folder. However to run the prover you need to generate .zkey and .wtns files. You can use snarkjs to do that.

Commands below are from snarkjs repository's README.

Compile the circuit

circom --r1cs --wasm --c --sym circuit.circom

Compile the circuit

circom --r1cs --wasm --c --sym circuit.circom

Calculate the witness

snarkjs wtns calculate circuit_js/circuit.wasm input.json witness.wtns

Setup and Contributions

snarkjs groth16 setup circuit.r1cs pot_final.ptau circuit_0000.zkey
snarkjs zkey contribute circuit_0000.zkey circuit_0001.zkey --name="1st Contributor Name" -v
snarkjs zkey contribute circuit_0001.zkey circuit_0002.zkey --name="Second contribution Name" -v -e="Another random entropy"
snarkjs zkey export bellman circuit_0002.zkey  challenge_phase2_0003
snarkjs zkey bellman contribute bn128 challenge_phase2_0003 response_phase2_0003 -e="some random text"
snarkjs zkey import bellman circuit_0002.zkey response_phase2_0003 circuit_0003.zkey -n="Third contribution name"
snarkjs zkey beacon circuit_0003.zkey circuit_final.zkey 0102030405060708090a0b0c0d0e0f101112131415161718191a1b1c1d1e1f 10 -n="Final Beacon phase2"

Verify the final key

snarkjs zkey verify circuit.r1cs pot14_final.ptau circuit_final.zkey

Export the verification key

snarkjs zkey export verificationkey circuit_final.zkey verification_key.json

Disclaimer

This software has not been audited and should not be used in production environments. Use at your own risk.