STARK to SNARK

zkMIPS's STARK-to-SNARK proof recursion enables efficient on-chain verification by transforming STARK proofs into SNARK-compatible formats through a two-stage cryptographic transformation pipeline. This process reduces proof size​ while achieving constant-time verification \(O(1)\) independent of circuit complexity.

Field Adaptation and Circuit Shrinkage

This stage transforms proofs from STARK's native field (quartic extension field over KoalaBear Prime) to BN254-friendly format through:

• ​Proof Compression:

  Reduces proof length via a recursive compression method.

• Recursive Field Conversion:

  Transforms proofs from STARK's native field (quartic extension field over KoalaBear Prime) to BN254-friendly format.

SNARK Wrapping

This stage finalizes SNARK compatibility through:

• ​Circuit Specialization

  Generates Groth16-specific constraint system.

• ​Proof Packaging

  Encodes proofs using BN254 elliptic curve primitives.

• ​On-Chain Optimization

  Implements optimized on-chain pairing verification.