{"record_type":"pith_number_record","schema_url":"https://pith.science/schemas/pith-number/v1.json","pith_number":"pith:2026:4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2","short_pith_number":"pith:4Q4VPTYB","schema_version":"1.0","canonical_sha256":"e43957cf01d226779fc7443713f7b536aad7b7bd51c5711b8d91c6f7833e1270","source":{"kind":"arxiv","id":"2605.25493","version":1},"attestation_state":"computed","paper":{"title":"ZK-Tracer: A High-Performance Heterogeneous Accelerator for Zero-Knowledge VM Trace Generation","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cs.AR","authors_text":"Cheng Ni, Haowen Fang, Jia Xiong, Jieran Cui, Mingchi Zhang, Nan Guan, Xi Wang, Yinan Zhu, Zhengkai Wen","submitted_at":"2026-05-25T06:54:46Z","abstract_excerpt":"Zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) are a key technology for driving the large-scale adoption of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), but their performance bottlenecks severely limit their practicality. While current hardware acceleration research has exclusively focused on backend proving, we identify that the frontend execution and trace generation phase is rapidly emerging as the new system bottleneck. To address this challenge, we propose ZK-Tracer, the first hardware accelerator architecture specifically designed for the zkVM frontend. ZK-Tracer features a novel heterogeneous design comprisin"},"verification_status":{"content_addressed":true,"pith_receipt":true,"author_attested":false,"weak_author_claims":0,"strong_author_claims":0,"externally_anchored":false,"storage_verified":false,"citation_signatures":0,"replication_records":0,"graph_snapshot":true,"references_resolved":false,"formal_links_present":false},"canonical_record":{"source":{"id":"2605.25493","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"metadata":{"license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","primary_cat":"cs.AR","submitted_at":"2026-05-25T06:54:46Z","cross_cats_sorted":[],"title_canon_sha256":"6707f390eac6a34d83e5dc218225f738ec86c4d5b3b2da23f864ada341f62d57","abstract_canon_sha256":"bdd1d7b77b03fc9af861b677d18c82618b792646634cc326f4d6d89e11cac9bf"},"schema_version":"1.0"},"receipt":{"kind":"pith_receipt","key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","algorithm":"ed25519","signed_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204780Z","signature_b64":"yGnqSQNcwo2p8BWxKaWuIMbwyZfdBfKusQ04uRVYX/0tKy4y7+4zympk0cj6uV8RZgD3eyg8qkbolt60I0ZsBg==","signed_message":"canonical_sha256_bytes","builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1","receipt_version":"0.3","canonical_sha256":"e43957cf01d226779fc7443713f7b536aad7b7bd51c5711b8d91c6f7833e1270","last_reissued_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204006Z","signature_status":"signed_v1","first_computed_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204006Z","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54"},"graph_snapshot":{"paper":{"title":"ZK-Tracer: A High-Performance Heterogeneous Accelerator for Zero-Knowledge VM Trace Generation","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cs.AR","authors_text":"Cheng Ni, Haowen Fang, Jia Xiong, Jieran Cui, Mingchi Zhang, Nan Guan, Xi Wang, Yinan Zhu, Zhengkai Wen","submitted_at":"2026-05-25T06:54:46Z","abstract_excerpt":"Zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) are a key technology for driving the large-scale adoption of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), but their performance bottlenecks severely limit their practicality. While current hardware acceleration research has exclusively focused on backend proving, we identify that the frontend execution and trace generation phase is rapidly emerging as the new system bottleneck. To address this challenge, we propose ZK-Tracer, the first hardware accelerator architecture specifically designed for the zkVM frontend. ZK-Tracer features a novel heterogeneous design comprisin"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2605.25493","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.25493/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"},"aliases":[{"alias_kind":"arxiv","alias_value":"2605.25493","created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"},{"alias_kind":"arxiv_version","alias_value":"2605.25493v1","created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"},{"alias_kind":"doi","alias_value":"10.48550/arxiv.2605.25493","created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_12","alias_value":"4Q4VPTYB2ITH","created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_16","alias_value":"4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6H","created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_8","alias_value":"4Q4VPTYB","created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"}],"events":[],"event_summary":{},"paper_claims":[],"inbound_citations":{"count":0,"internal_anchor_count":0,"sample":[]},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"sample":[],"anchors":[]},"links":{"html":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2","json":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2.json","graph_json":"https://pith.science/api/pith-number/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/graph.json","events_json":"https://pith.science/api/pith-number/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/events.json","paper":"https://pith.science/paper/4Q4VPTYB"},"agent_actions":{"view_html":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2","download_json":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2.json","view_paper":"https://pith.science/paper/4Q4VPTYB","resolve_alias":"https://pith.science/api/pith-number/resolve?arxiv=2605.25493&json=true","fetch_graph":"https://pith.science/api/pith-number/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/graph.json","fetch_events":"https://pith.science/api/pith-number/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/events.json","actions":{"anchor_timestamp":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/action/timestamp_anchor","attest_storage":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/action/storage_attestation","attest_author":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/action/author_attestation","sign_citation":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/action/citation_signature","submit_replication":"https://pith.science/pith/4Q4VPTYB2ITHPH6HIQ3RH55VG2/action/replication_record"}},"created_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00","updated_at":"2026-05-26T02:04:39.204137+00:00"}