a16z crypto releases Lattice Jolt: The first high-performance post-quantum zkVM based on lattice cryptography

TechFlow reports that on September 09, following an official announcement from a16z crypto, a16z crypto has officially released Lattice Jolt, a new version of its open-source zkVM (zero-knowledge virtual machine). The underlying cryptography has completely transitioned from elliptic curves to a lattice architecture, achieving post-quantum security while significantly boosting performance.

Key highlights include:

• Performance Improvement: Proof generation speed increased by 2-3x, reaching up to 2 million RV64IMAC cycles/second in CPU mode, and breaking through 10 million cycles/second with MacBook GPU acceleration (Apple Metal);
• Smallest Proof Size: Proof size under 100 KB, significantly outperforming other post-quantum zkVMs which range from 200 KB to 600 KB;
• Memory Optimization: Memory usage per cycle reduced from ~300 bytes to 200 bytes, enabling proof generation for millions of RISC-V cycles on mobile devices;
• Security: Based on the Module-SIS standard assumption, providing full 128-bit security strength, belonging to the same class of assumptions as ML-DSA and ML-KEM;
• New Commitment Scheme: The newly developed Akita polynomial commitment scheme, created jointly by LayerZero, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Southern California, and other institutions, replaces the original Dory scheme.

a16z crypto also noted that hash-based SNARKs generally rely on algebraic hash functions (such as Poseidon) and insufficiently validated security assumptions, making them not truly "conservative" choices. Lattice SNARKs are expected to become the most mainstream deployment solution in the post-quantum era.