Researchers estimate that more than 90 billion zero-knowledge proofs will be generated to support Web3 transactions and decentralized applications (dApps) by 2030. However, hardware and operating costs constitute a restrictive entry barrier for small/medium-sized players.

So how to solve this problem? Next, let’s take a look at Kalypso, a low-cost, secure, and efficient ZK proof market on MarlinProtocol.

Web3 uses ZK proof technology to solve a variety of problems, including scaling solutions, payment gateways, digital identities, and more. Aligned.co researchers predict that by 2030, ZK proofs will account for 90% of Ethereum blocks, compared to only 25% currently, which is not groundless. Here are the details of their prediction for 2030:

The main feature of ZK proof is that it can prove the authenticity of information without revealing the content of the information. Since the generation of ZK proof is an energy and computationally intensive process, it requires specialized machines, which increases the operating expenses.

The researchers estimated an upfront investment of more than $20,000 for hardware and installation, and more than $50,000 in operating costs. This configuration is just an averagely powerful machine, not the best in the industry.

While they may not impact large companies as much, these costs can also hinder the adoption of ZK proofs in small and medium-sized project operations. In addition to the above costs, technical knowledge is required to perform each step and ensure the correct execution of the process. In short, it is not cheap or easy. For these reasons, MarlinProtocol developed Kalypso, a permissionless prover marketplace that allows anyone to outsource the generation of ZK proofs to specialized decentralized network hardware providers.

Key benefits of Kalypso include:

✅ Smoother user experience: A dedicated network of provers can provide users with faster and seamless interaction with applications while reducing waiting time;

✅ Higher resource utilization: By pooling resources across hardware providers, higher efficiencies and revenues can be achieved, amortizing fixed costs across multiple customers and markets.

✅ Censorship resistance: By decentralizing the Prover infrastructure, potential single points of failure are eliminated, limiting the impact of malicious or inappropriate operations.

To ensure that hardware providers can operate faithfully, they need to stake $POND tokens. If the operator fails to complete the task correctly within the determined deadline, these tokens may be slashed;

Additionally, Kalypso’s architecture supports modularity and composability, which means that Kalypso can be plugged into any ZK application and can even be used for proof generation by protocols that have their own proof networks, such as Rollups.

However, how does it work?

A ZK proof begins by generating a proof request on Marlin to interact with a ZKApp, selecting the appropriate market (which can be added permissionlessly), and then submitting the request, which is transmitted on-chain to the Kalypso protocol.


The Kalypso Matching Engine (KME) detects the request and adds it to the order book for matching. Once an appropriate match is found based on the specific information submitted by the client, a task is generated and sent on-chain.

At the same time, the Solver client retrieves the task, routes it to the proof generation client, and supervises the entire proof generation process. If the proof is valid and generated within the agreed time, the Prover will be rewarded, otherwise he will be punished.

KME uses a two-dimensional matching engine algorithm (time and price) to enhance user flexibility by enabling users to prioritize one or the other based on whether they are more cost-sensitive or time-sensitive. Kalypso’s prover marketplace can innovate the ZK space by making it more accessible, cost-effective, and reliable.

Furthermore, Kalypso creates a win-win situation where provers can diversify their resources across different markets and generate more revenue, while users can get the best possible prices through competition between provers.

Given the growing demand for ZK proofs in the DeFi space, Marlin has a promising future ahead of it, leveraging it to expand and improve its network of provers and become a leader in the space.

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