zk-starks

zk-starks

tl; dr

• the T stands for "transparent", resolving one of the primary weakness of zk-snarks, its reliance on a trusted setup (they can work without the trusted setup of common reference string (crs)). instead, they rely on publicly verifiable randomness to setup parameters for generating and verifying proofs.
• thye also come with much simpler cryptographic assumptions, avoiding the need for elliptic curves, pairings, and knowledge of expoent assumptions - instead relying on hashes and information theory (secure on the quantum standard).
• the size of a proof goes up from 288 bytes to a few hundred kilobytes (making it more expensive to verify on ethereum).
• it provides more scalability because the time needed to prove and verify validity proofs increases quasilinearly in relation to the complexity of the underlying computation.

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cool resources

• risc0, zk platform based on zk-starks and risc-v microarchtecture
• starks, part I: proof with polynomials, by vub
• starks, part II: thank you goodness it's fri-day, by vub
• starks, part III: into the weeds, by vub
• stark 101 videos, by starkware