zkLLVM Circuit Compiler

zkLLVM is a compiler from high-level programming languages into an input for provable computations protocols. It can be used to generate input for any arbitrary zero-knowledge proof system or protocol, which accepts input data in form of algebraic circuits It assumed to be used together with Placeholder proof system or any other arithmetization compatible with Placeholder proof system.

Every proof output from zkLLVM is an in-EVM verifiable one through the Proof Market. Use the Proof Market Toolchain repository (https://github.com/NilFoundation/proof-market-toolchain) to generate in-EVM verifiers.

Notice: zkLLVM is NOT a virtual machine and has nothing to do with it. It, moreover, with its existence proves the absence of necessity in zkVMs, posing them as redundant.

zkLLVM is designed as an extension to LLVM toolchain, thus supports any front end which compiles to LLVM IR. This enables developers to write code in native language instead of DSL's specific to other libraries.

zkLLVM extends:

1. clang/clang++ : Compiles the program into general intermediate representation byte-code from C/C++.
2. rustc: Compiles the program into general intermediate representation byte-code from Rust. (https://github.com/NilFoundation/zkllvm-rslang)
3. assigner Creates the circuit execution trace (a.k.a. assignment table) and produces data, needed by the prover to produce proof.

Languages currently supported are:

1. C/C++ (all the standards Clang 15 supports).
2. Rust (https://github.com/NilFoundation/zkllvm-rslang).
3. Your language suggestions are warmly welcomed in Telegram (https://t.me/nilfoundation) or on Discord (https://discord.gg/KmTAEjbmM3).

Building

Unix

Install Dependencies

• Boost >= 1.76.0
• CMake >= 3.5
• Clang >= 12.0
• Python >= 3.7
• Rust >= 1.68 (if you want to build Rust compiler)

On Debian systems, everything except Boost and Rust can be installed with the following command:

sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev cmake clang-12 git curl pkg-config

1. Clone the repository

Clone the repository and all the submodules via:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/NilFoundation/zkLLVM.git
cd zkLLVM

2. Configure CMake

cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -B ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .

Or use the below command instead, if you prefer Ninja build system (as we do, because Ninja works much faster).

cmake -G "Ninja" -B ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .

3. Build C++ compiler

If you are using Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} assigner clang -j$(nproc)

If you are using Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} assigner clang -j$(nproc)

4. Build Rust compiler

Make sure you have rustc with cargo installed first.

4.1 Reconfigure CMake, adding Rust tools

Unix makefiles:

cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -B ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DRSLANG_BUILD_EXTENDED=TRUE -DRSLANG_BUILD_TOOLS=cargo .

Ninja:

cmake -G "Ninja" -B ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DRSLANG_BUILD_EXTENDED=TRUE -DRSLANG_BUILD_TOOLS=cargo .

4.2 Export path for loading LLVM libraries

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$(pwd)/build/libs/circifier/llvm/lib"

4.3 Build Rust compiler and Cargo

Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} rslang -j$(nproc)

Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} rslang -j$(nproc)

After that you will be able to call Cargo like that:

export RSLANG="$(pwd)/build/libs/rslang/build/host"
RUSTC=$RSLANG/stage1/bin/rustc $RSLANG/stage1-tools-bin/cargo --version

Note: if you want an advanced Rust compilation, you can build zkllvm first:

Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} -j$(nproc)

Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} -j$(nproc)

And then use Rust default build system x.py.

Pre-built binaries

Rust toolchain

You can install rslang as another toolchain in rustup or as a standalone application. Installation is done via rslang-installer.py script. It finds and downloads required release of rslang and installs it in the desired location.

Supported platforms

• x86-64 GNU/Linux

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+

Installation with rustup

1. Install rustup as described on official page.

2. Install rslang:

Run this in your shell:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/NilFoundation/zkllvm@master/rslang-installer.py | python - --channel nightly

You can also download the rslang-installer.py first and then run it:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -O https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/NilFoundation/zkllvm@master/rslang-installer.py
python rslang-installer.py --channel nightly

Now you can use toolchain called zkllvm to compile with rslang:

rustc +zkllvm -V

Stanalone installation

To install rslang without rustup use --no-rustup argument. You will need to pass PATH to desired installation directory.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -O https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/NilFoundation/zkllvm@master/rslang-installer.py
python rslang-installer.py --no-rustup --prefix PATH

Usage

zkLLVM's workflow is as follows:

1. Write Circuit : Users willing to prove some statement are supposed to implement an application in a language compatible with some frontend (C++ for now). This code will be compiled with a modified version of the clang compiler, which will output intermediate representation of the circuit.

   For the most performant cryptography circuits (e.g. hashes, signatures, VDFs, proof system verifications, etc.) we recommend using =nil; Foundation's Crypto3 library.

   The circuit developer will be generating the in-EVM applications for the circuits they have created. This will enable on-chain verification of the proof. The in-EVM logic consists of gate representations of the circuit. These contracts work in conjunction with the Placeholder proof validation in-EVM logic. The process to transpile the circuit into smart contracts is handled by the lorem-ipsum project.

2. Publish Circuit/Generate Proof: zkLLVM is tightly coupled with =nil; Foundation's Proof Market. Users willing to generate a proof for the circuit, will be matched with counter-parties based on price and other conditions. The circuit generated above needs to be published to proof market to enable this.

To generate a proof it is required to pass the following to the proof generator:

* Circuit : Arithmetization of the circuit.
* Inputs: Public (and private) inputs to circuit part of the proof request.

This generates the binary proof file. This flow is handled by the proof market toolchain repository & documented here.

Users can generate & inspect intermediate artifacts such as execution trace by running the assigner process. See examples below.

3. Verify Proof: Proof can be retrieved from the proof market and verified on chain. Users can verify proof in these modes :

   1. Offline : Tooling to support validation of off-chain proof will be added in the future.
   2. On-chain : This flow of generating smart contracts is handled by the lorem-ipsum project. A high level flow is described in the guides for circuit developer & proof verifier described above.

   Above we see how a dApp can use generated verifiers on-chain by simply including verification interfaces.

Examples

Linux

Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(nproc)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas

Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(nproc)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas

macOS

Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas

Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas

Validating the circuit

You can also run the assigner with --check flag to validate the satisfiability of the circuit. If the circuit is satisfiable, the assigner will output the satisfying assignment in the assignment.tbl file. If there is an error, the assigner will output the error message and throw an exception via std::abort.

Linux

Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(nproc)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas --check

Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(nproc)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas --check

macOS

Unix makefiles:

make -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas --check

Ninja:

ninja -C ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build} circuit_cpp_examples -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/bin/assigner/assigner -b ${ZKLLVM_BUILD:-build}/examples/cpp/arithmetics_cpp_example.ll -i examples/inputs/arithmetics.inp -t assignment.tbl -c circuit.crct -e pallas --check