Crypto developer who goes by Bobbin Threadbare, lead of Polygon Miden and former Facebook core ZK-researcher, shares details of the latest upgrade to MidenVM, which is arguably the most technically advanced solution on rollups.
Polygon Miden receives crucial VM upgrade: Details
The Polygon team deployed a new version of Miden VM (v0.7), the latest iteration of its STARK-based solution Miden. It has an improved assembly language, an enhanced development library and optimized data logistics. Details of the milestone were covered by Miden founder Bobbin Threadbare in his X thread.
Yesterday, we released a new version of Miden VM (v0.7). It packs lots of new features and performance improvements. The full changelog is here: https://t.co/vQQ3XBzCQ5
A short thread with key highlights 👇
— Bobbin Threadbare (@bobbinth) October 13, 2023
The fresh release includes an array of improvements to Miden’s assembly language. This build brings support for nested modules and module aliases, constant value expressions and debug instruction for developers.
Also, Miden’s standard library — a set of procedures that can be launched by every Miden program — now includes Compact Sparse Merkle trees with 256-bit keys and Falcon signature verification.
In terms of the virtual machine itself, the developers of Miden refactored how the VM communicates with the host environment and optimized some internal VM components. Advanced reporting on program execution was also included in the release.
As a result, the performance of the entire virtual machine reached new highs that were registered across various hardware devices:
On the performance front, we re-ran all our benchmarks: VM performance improved ~30% as compared to the last time we ran them. Overall, the performance improved about 2x as compared to where we were in early 2023
Last but not least, the developers added benchmarks for proofs suitable for recursion.
Polygon Miden goes beyond EVM limitations
Acquired by Polygon in late 2021, Miden is an attempt to move Polygon (MATIC) instruments beyond EVM-equivalence. Instead of EVM, Miden relies on its own type of virtual machine, MidenVM.
Technically, it is a new-gen second-layer solution for Ethereum (ETH) based on zero-knowledge scalable transparent argument of knowledge or zk-STARKs.
Starting from 2022, Polygon Miden has been among the core focuses of Polygon’s (MATIC) ZK-centric developments.
Polygon Miden is the first blockchain that champions a new proofs paradigm, i.e., “client-side proving.”
