ZCLS : A Lifecycle Strategy for Efficient ZK-Rollup Circuit Optimization in Circom
Loading...
Access rights
openAccess
CC BY
CC BY
publishedVersion
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Date
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
24
Series
IEEE Access, Volume 13, pp. 202840-202863
Abstract
Scalability remains a key challenge for layer 1 blockchains. ZK-Rollups, leveraging zero-knowledge proofs, offer a promising layer 2 solution by improving throughput and reducing costs while preserving security. However, the performance of ZK-Rollup still poses a major barrier to practical implementation. The proving circuits in popular applications like ERC-20 transactions are highly complex, often containing a large number of constraints, which directly impacts the computation time and resources required to generate zero-knowledge proofs. This study presents an empirical study on the impact of constraint optimization in Circom on the performance of ERC-20 ZK-Rollups using Groth16. Three optimization levels (–O0, –O1, –O2) are evaluated across transaction batches ranging from 4 to 128, with further exploration up to 512 for specific optimization levels to assess scalability. The results show a trade-off: –O2 reduces constraints by up to 73.2% but increases the compilation time by 213.35% at batch size 128, while –O1 offers a more balanced approach suitable for development stages. The findings confirm that the proof generation time is closely tied to constraint count and complexity. Based on these insights, this study introduces ZCLS (ZK-Circuit Lifecycle Strategy), a practical framework for selecting optimization flags aligned with development stages to enhance ZK-Rollup system efficiency.Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Other note
Citation
Vo, K T, Ngo, M, Nguyen, T, Ta, T T, Thi, M T N, Nguyen, H T & Nguyen-Hoang, T A 2025, 'ZCLS : A Lifecycle Strategy for Efficient ZK-Rollup Circuit Optimization in Circom', IEEE Access, vol. 13, pp. 202840-202863. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3636934