Glossary
RISC Zero
A general-purpose ZK virtual machine that proves the correct execution of arbitrary Rust (or C++) programs — Bonsai is the hosted prover network.
RISC Zero implements a ZK virtual machine over the RISC-V instruction set. Developers write programs in Rust (or any language with a RISC-V backend), compile to a guest binary, and the zkVM generates a proof that the binary executed correctly on given inputs.
The model decouples ZK from circuit engineering: any program is a candidate for proving. Bonsai, the hosted prover service, lets on-chain contracts submit jobs and receive verified results. Competitors include Succinct's SP1 and Polygon's Miden VM.