Features
Nockchain is a permissionless settlement layer that stores succinct proofs of truth claims in a scarce namespace with an immutable history. Nockchain’s native asset, $NOCK, is a convertible economic instrument that values this scarce namespace alongside the verifiable computation necessary to write to it. Users may pay the protocol $NOCK to have a computation SNARKed and posted into the scarce namespace. As such, the Nockchain protocol provides permissionless access to Global-Consensus SNARKs as a Service.
Nockchain was built from the math down to the metal for secure, correct zero-knowledge provability. The blockchain pairs state-of-the-art mathematics for zero-knowledge proofs with classic cypherpunk PoW incentives. ZKPs become a commoditized algorithm, lightweight and efficient.
Nockchain's computing foundation provides a new era of functionality for users and developers.
Computational Efficiency. NockApps that interact with Nockchain post lightweight app rollups rather than heavy and expensive onchain executions.
App Security. Apps that integrate with Nockchain will deliver unprecedented security guarantees to users.
Sound Money. The $NOCK coin, with a hard-capped supply and a PoW minting mechanism, provides a store of value to users that also allows $NOCK to be used as programmable money.
In this presentation, Zorp founder Logan Allen presents the Nock ZKVM narrative.
Proof of Useful Work
Nockchain's incentives commoditize efficient ZKPs using ZKPoW and $NOCK block rewards. For comparison, after NIST published the SHA-2 family of hash functions in 2001, the number of SHA-256 hashes generated each month rounded to zero until Bitcoin’s genesis block. Since January 2009, the SHA-256 hash-rate has risen exponentially because Bitcoin’s proof-of-work subsidized it. ZKPs today are analogous to SHA-256 hashes before Bitcoin. A world of fast, easy ZKPs is a more secure world.
Assimakis Kattis, Joseph Bonneau. (2020). "Proof of Necessary Work: Succinct State Verification with Fairness Guarantees" (key concept: proof of necessary work)
Assimakis Kattis, Fabian Trottner. (2020). "Stabilizing Congestion in Decentralized Record-Keepers" (key concept: elastic block size)
Cryptographic Strength
The Nock ZKVM is Turing-complete, achieves 121 bits of security over the Goldilocks field and is over an order of magnitude more efficient than general-purpose ZKVMs in the RISC-V family. The entire consensus logic of the Nock ZKVM is efficiently representable in the Goldilocks field. (That is, every single data structure is designed to be a field element in the Goldilocks field.)
Developer Ecosystem
The Nockchain ecosystem provides developers with a complete suite of tools designed to streamline application creation:
NockApp Framework: A simple framework for building apps that integrate with Nockchain and use zero-knowledge proofs. App rollups to Nockchain are straightforward.
Jock Programming Language: An easy-to-use, Swift-like programming language that compiles to Nock and makes programming for the Nock ecosystem simple.
Strategic Bundling: Developers write their state machines in Jock or Hoon, compile to the Nock ISA, and let the framework handle persistence, networking, and proof generation. Developers no longer optimize gas at every line of code; cost is dominated by the size of the proof and the bytes they store on chain. Users interact with a single wallet and never wonder which network holds the deepest liquidity or lowest fees.
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