Efficient Proof of RAM Programs from Any Public-Coin Zero-Knowledge System

Abstract

We show a compiler that allows to prove the correct execution of RAM programs using any zero-knowledge system for circuit satisfiability. At the core of this work is an arithmetic circuit which verifies the consistency of a list of memory access tuples in zero-knowledge.

Using such a circuit, we obtain the first constant-round and concretely efficient zero-knowledge proof protocol for RAM programs using any stateless zero-knowledge proof system for Boolean or arithmetic circuits. Both the communication complexity and the prover and verifier run times asymptotically scale linearly in the size of the memory and the run time of the RAM program; we demonstrate concrete efficiency with performance results of our C++ implementation.

We concretely instantiate our construction with an efficient MPC-in-the-Head proof system, Limbo (ACM CCS 2021). The C++ implementation of our access protocol extends that of Limbo and provides interactive proofs with 40 bits of statistical security with an amortized cost of 0.42 ms of prover time and 2.8 KB of communication per memory access, independently of the size of the memory; with multi-threading, this cost is reduced to 0.12 ms and 1.8 KB respectively. This performance of our public-coin protocol approaches that of private-coin protocol BubbleRAM (ACM CCS 2020, 0.15 ms and 1.5 KB per access).