Gevulot, a zero-knowledge (ZK) firm building the ZkCloud, this week announced the launch of Firestarter, its first production-ready, universal ZK proving network. Designed to simplify and accelerate proof generation, Gevolut said Firestarter reduces costs by more than 95% compared to current solutions while improving ZK, proving speed and efficiency, empowering developers and organizations to build ZK-based applications affordably and reliably.
The Firestarter network launch begins with a node incentivization model, the Not-A-Node-Sale. This initiative allows participants to fractionally rent GPUs beginning at $160 per month, contribute to proof generation, and earn token rewards while supporting the ZK ecosystem.
The Firestarter network is engineered to handle large-scale workloads while delivering fast, cheap, and decentralized ZK proofs. Firestarter builds on a devnet launched in March, which has been tested by more than 300 organizations and independent developers from projects such as Risc0, Aztec, ZKSync, Scroll, Taiko, and Polygon.
The next stage in development expected in the coming months includes Deluge, a fully permissionless ZK proving testnet network, the last step before the permissionless mainnet launch in 2025 of ZkCloud, a global ZK proving network.
“By cutting costs by over 95%, we are laying the groundwork for ZK becoming the go-to technology for scaling in 2025, empowering developers and organizations to scale ZK-based applications with confidence,” said Teemu Päivinen, CEO and co-founder of Gevulot. “This launch, along with the Not-A-Node-Sale, creates a clear path for sustainable ZK ecosystem growth, ensuring that the future of cryptographic computing is accessible and scalable for all.”
As a Cosmos SDK-based chain, Firestarter handles credits, workload allocation, and activity monitoring in a pay-as-you-go model. Unlike traditional services, such as AWS, where costs are fixed to a minimum of $8.14 per hour, Firestarter can offer ZK-proving services at 95% less cost, or $0.84/hour, akin to $0.084 for 10 minutes of usage. Gevolut said this drastically reduces costs and eliminates capital expenditure from idle time, a significant drawback for companies relying on AWS, GCP, and other major cloud providers.
The Not-A-Node-Sale allows investors to rent highly specialized GPUs running nodes in the Firestarter network beginning at $160 per month and multiple full nodes if desired. This fractionalization allows smaller investors the opportunity to participate in the execution of ZK proofs through the Firestarter network. Gevulot and the Gevulot token will adhere to MiCA, a regulatory framework for the launch of cryptocurrencies in the European Union.
“With strong demand from major industry players like ZKsync, StarkWare, Nexus, Alchemy, Ankr, Gelato and more, Gevulot is poised to accelerate the next stage of ZK ecosystem development,” Päivinen added. “Both Firestarter and the Not-A-Node-Sale reflect our commitment to making ZK proofing accessible, efficient, and future-proof.”