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> Or if the big computer says "this entire Debian distribution of binary files was indeed compiled with this version of GCC", you can quickly verify that all th
by dataflow 2y ago
> Or if the big computer says "this entire Debian distribution of binary files was indeed compiled with this version of GCC", you can quickly verify that all the binaries are exactly what they should be - without having to trust anyone.
> So amazed and intrigued that I had to learn how it's done
Any chance you could just illustrate this somehow with a basic example? I just don't see how you could possibly verify that a program is produced with GCC without going through approximately as much effort as it'd take to compile it.
- lifeinthevoid 2y agoAs far as I understand, you can't just use any gcc binary as it exists today. The program needs to be represented as a specific, mathematical expression that is suitable for zero-knowledge proofs.
- clarus 2y agoThere are RISC-V based zero-knowledge virtual machines, to which a GCC version can be compiled. So this should be possible, although probably very slow, maybe a thousand times slower than a normal GCC execution.
- numtel 2y agoRisc Zero runs at about 500hz on high-end desktop hardware. They're working on speed ups though. (Source: their presentation in Brussels in July)
- melvinzzz 2y agoThat was 500 KHz, and the latest versions are at 1MHz, so still 1000 times slower than a 1Ghz machine, but it’s easy to parallelize the workload, so it’s really mostly a cost of computation issue.
- numtel 2y agoAh thanks, that's what I meant
- IanCal 2y agoLink to risc zero, looks like a fascinating project https://www.risczero.com/ https://www.risczero.com/