Space and Time Propels ZK Proofs with Open-Source GPU Accelerator

• Microsoft-backed Space and Time releases Blitzar in open source. 

• Blitzar is the GPU accelerator framework behind the proof of SQL model. 

• Users can now access Blitzar directly on Space and Time’s GitHub page. 

AI-powered decentralized data warehouse Space and Time announced the launch of an open-source version of Blitzar,  its GPU accelerator framework for zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, powering proof of SQL. By open-sourcing Blitzar, Space and Time aims to offer Web 3 developers and users a faster and more robust framework for building GPU-accelerated ZK proofs. The open-source main repository can be found on Space and Time’s GitHub page here. 

ZK proofs are quickly gaining traction across the blockchain space with several platforms introducing the technology. Polygon, a layer 2 EVM chain introduced Polygon zkEVM, sparking up the adoption of this verification method. Last year in August, Space and Time launched its ZK proof, Proof of SQL, in alpha, allowing smart contracts to ask questions about data from their own chain, other chains or off-chain sources in a verifiable way.

Space and Time’s proof of SQL is a product capable of proving that the data returned in applicable queries is accurate and has not been tampered with. The platform verifies this via zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, which generate a SNARK cryptographic proof of query execution, allowing a smart contract to retrieve and process data with SQL in a tamper-proof way.

As the GPU accelerator framework behind the proof of SQL, Blitzar optimizes the computationally demanding ZK proof. The Blitzar framework is designed specifically for GPUs, which are a type of hardware well suited for heavy computational workloads like ZK proof generation. GPUs also offer an efficient memory structure for handling large datasets, which is critical for next-gen ZK proofs like Proof of SQL. 

With ZK proofs becoming more popular across the Web 3 space, Jay White, Co-Founder and Head of Research at Space and Time, believes making Blitzar open-source will help in the development of futuristic ZK proofs on their platform. 

Speaking on the launch of Blitzar in open-source, White stated: 

"ZK proofs are the future of Web3, and we believe that every protocol can benefit from rapid GPU acceleration. Blitzar is already a very high-performance open-source GPU acceleration framework, and we're excited to collaborate with the broader Web3 community to continue to improve Blitzar’s performance and enable the next generation of ZK proofs.”

Space and Time entered a strategic partnership with global chip maker NVIDIA, in 2022, with the latter aiming to accelerate proof of SQL using their GPUs. However, as Space and Time were building their proof of SQL protocol, several challenges arose in their quest to offer an optimized ZK proof. Majorly, Space and Time struggled to find a GPU acceleration framework that was able to handle the computational requirements of its ZK proof and is open-source. This forced them to create Blitzar from the ground up, giving Web 3 participants a faster, more robust and more widely adopted ZK proof. 

Apart from faster computations, an open-source Blitzar will also allow developers to build next-gen protocols, decentralized applications and businesses. The latest release cojoins with the release of Python Data for Jobs on Space and Time, a data solution for businesses with long-running Python Jobs, earlier this month. The solution allows developers to use Python to extract data from external database sources transform it, and load it seamlessly on Space and Time, without writing any code.

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