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Split Prover Zero-Knowledge SNARKs

Authors:
Sanjam Garg , UC Berkeley
Aarushi Goel , Purdue University
Dimitris Kolonelos , UC Berkeley
Sina Shiehian , Snap Inc.
Rohit Sinha , Swirlds Labs
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Conference: PKC 2025
Abstract: We initiate the study of split prover zkSNARKs, which allow Alice to offload part of the zkSNARK computation to her assistant, Bob. In scenarios like online transactions (e.g., zCash), a significant portion of the witness (e.g., membership proofs of input coins) is often available to the prover (Alice) before the transaction begins. This setup offers an opportunity to Alice to initiate the proof computation early, even before the entire witness is available. The remaining computation can then be delegated to Bob, who can complete it once the final witness (e.g., the transaction amount) is known. To prevent Bob from generating proofs independently (e.g., initiating unauthorized transactions), it is essential that the data provided to him for the second phase of computation does not reveal the witness used in the first phase. Additionally, the verifier of the zkSNARK should be unable to determine whether the proof was generated solely by Alice or through this two-step process. To achieve this efficiently, we require this two-phase proof generation to only use cryptography in a black-box manner. We propose a split prover zkSNARK based on the Groth16 zkSNARKs [Groth, EUROCRYPT 2016], meeting all these requirements. Our solution is also asymptotically tight, meaning it achieves the optimal second phase proof generation time for Groth16. Importantly, our split prover zk- SNARK preserves the verification algorithm of the original Groth16 zkSNARK, enabling seamless integration into existing deployments of Groth16.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{pkc-2025-35179,
  title={Split Prover Zero-Knowledge SNARKs},
  publisher={Springer-Verlag},
  author={Sanjam Garg and Aarushi Goel and Dimitris Kolonelos and Sina Shiehian and Rohit Sinha},
  year=2025
}