ZKM's Trustless and Universal Settlement Infrastructure

ZKM’s Trustless and Universal Settlement Infrastructure is a foundational component of the GOAT Network, designed to ensure the security, scalability, and efficiency of transactions on the network. This infrastructure leverages advanced cryptographic techniques and decentralized protocols to maintain trustlessness, permissionlessness, and decentralization, which are critical for the robust operation of the GOAT Network.

Key Components

1. Trustless Bridge Protocol
2. Validity Proof Generation
3. Decentralized Proof Network
4. Unified Native Liquidity

Trustless Bridge Protocol

The Trustless Bridge Protocol enables secure asset transfers between Bitcoin (L1) and the GOAT Network (L2) without requiring trust in any centralized authority. It relies on native Bitcoin Multisig scripts and advanced cryptographic proofs to ensure the integrity and security of the bridging process.

Phases of the Trustless Bridge Protocol:

• Asset Peg-In:

  1. The user starts a transaction on Bitcoin and sends the asset to an n-of-n Multisig wallet managed by the GOAT Federation.
  2. The ZKM Relayer transmits the latest Bitcoin block header to the ZKM Node.
  3. The ZKM Node maintains the SPV Merkle Tree root in L2’s smart contract.
  4. The user submits a claim transaction with SPV proof to the ZKM Node. Upon verification, the smart contract mints the wrapped token (zBTC) on the GOAT Network to the user.

• Asset Peg-Out:

  1. The user initiates a withdrawal request on the GOAT Network.
  2. The corresponding amount of zBTC is burned on the GOAT Network.
  3. The ZKM Node generates a Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) to verify the transaction.
  4. Upon successful verification, the Bitcoin is released from the n-of-n Multisig wallet back to the user’s L1 wallet.

This protocol ensures that assets can be securely transferred between layers, maintaining the integrity and trustlessness of the network.

Validity Proof Generation

GOAT Network leverages ZKM to generate validity proofs for transactions. The ZKM produces Groth16 proofs for on-chain verification, ensuring that off-chain computations are correctly executed and verifiable on-chain. This method utilizes proof compression techniques to enhance efficiency and scalability.

Key Techniques:

• Proof Compression: Converts Stark Proofs to Snark Proofs through recursion, breaking down the proof verifier into smaller, more manageable components.
• Efficient Verification: Incorporates advanced methods like Precomputing Lines and Predefined Q to optimize pairing verification, making it feasible to compute on Bitcoin Script.

These techniques allow the GOAT Network to maintain high levels of security and efficiency in processing and verifying transactions.

Decentralized Proof Network

The decentralized proof network is designed to enhance the scalability and security of the GOAT Network by distributing the proof generation process. It involves multiple provers that generate and aggregate proofs, ensuring that the system remains resilient and efficient.

Structure:

• Prover Types: Root Prover, Aggregation Prover, and Snark Prover.
• Process:
  1. The Root Prover generates the proof for MIPS VM on zkMIPS.
  2. The Aggregation Prover aggregates consecutive Root proofs.
  3. The Snark Prover generates the Groth16 proof for the Stark verifier of the Aggregation Prover.
  4. All Snark Proofs are aggregated by the GOAT Node and posted to the settlement layer.

This structure ensures that the proof generation process is scalable and secure, supporting the continuous and reliable operation of the GOAT Network.

Unified Native Liquidity

GOAT Network operates over the Entangled Rollup Network, which provides unified native liquidity across different Layer 1 blockchains. This system reuses the validity proof of Rollup transaction batches as bridge transaction receipts, enabling easy verification and completion of bridge transactions on the destination chain.

Benefits:

• Direct Pegging: Supports direct pegging of base blockchain assets without additional consensus mechanisms, treating pegged assets as native and ensuring their security.
• Enhanced Stability: Unified native liquidity enhances the network's stability and provides higher yields for participants.
• Community Consensus: Facilitates deep community consensus, further bolstering the robustness of the GOAT Network.

By leveraging ZKM's Trustless and Universal Settlement Infrastructure, the GOAT Network achieves a high degree of security, scalability, and efficiency, making it a powerful platform for building decentralized applications on Bitcoin.