Miden VM is a STARK-based zero-knowledge virtual machine designed for generating verifiable proofs of computation. It targets developers building ZK-enabled applications, offering a Turing-complete environment with features like flow control, procedures, and cryptographic primitives, enabling verifiable execution of arbitrary programs.

How It Works

Miden VM utilizes STARKs for generating proofs of execution, allowing verification without re-execution. It supports a custom assembly language and provides native 32-bit operations, cryptographic functions (Rescue Prime Optimized hash), and memory management. The VM's design emphasizes modularity through procedures and execution contexts, with support for nondeterministic inputs and customizable hosts for external data integration.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Install: cargo install miden-cli (for CLI) or add miden crate to Cargo.toml.
• Prerequisites: Rust toolchain. For no_std WASM targets, wasm32-unknown-unknown and wasm32-wasip1 are supported.
• Resources: Proof generation can be resource-intensive, with RAM consumption scaling significantly with computation length and security level (e.g., 14GB RAM for 2^20 cycles at 96-bit security).
• Docs: https://docs.0xmiden.org/

Highlighted Details

• STARK-based proofs of execution for verifiable computation.
• Turing-complete with support for procedures, memory, and custom kernel calls.
• Natively includes cryptographic primitives like RPO hashing and Merkle path verification.
• Concurrent proof generation leverages multi-threading (e.g., Rayon) for performance gains.

Maintenance & Community

• Actively developed with a clear roadmap towards recursive proofs and improved debugging.
• Community channels available via Discord.

Licensing & Compatibility

• MIT Licensed. Permissive for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

• The project is in an alpha stage, not audited, and may contain bugs or security flaws, making it unsuitable for production use.
• Performance benchmarks are preliminary and subject to change as optimizations and missing constraints are implemented.